Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach. I would love to have seen the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, here but I imagine that he has other things going on. I hope the Commencement matter falls on his ears. One could go on forever about the health issues throughout Ireland, especially the University Hospital Limerick, UHL, fiasco closer to home. Prevention is better than cure. If one can stop someone falling into a river, it saves one having to pull that person out of the river at the other end. To that end, this matter relates to Sláintecare and the plan to have primary healthcare centres built around towns and villages in order that people can go there in the first instance, instead of having to go straight to an accident and emergency department, because they cannot find a doctor or GP, or a health centre, that will take care of them.

The Minister has committed to me that he will increase the hours of the injury clinic in Ennis. That will be massive because the more services we provide outside of UHL, the more the pressure is taken off while we are waiting for one set of 96 beds to be built and then another set of 96 beds.However, we know many people are going to UHL because they have nowhere else to go beforehand.

To keep it to the point, will the Minister of State give me an update on the Sláintecare plan to build a primary care centre for the north Clare area in particular? Of course, everybody everywhere wants to know about this sort of thing but there is a major problem in the area and the local doctors are at crisis point. I have had meetings with them regarding capacity, and if a new primary care centre were built, it would enable them to expand their services. This is unique because most places do not have enough GPs. We actually have enough GPs. We just do not have the physical building space. It is not a staffing issue. It is an issue of a lack of space and of rooms for the doctors and their staff. Will the Minister of State give us a clear timeline, please? We are lucky in north Clare, and it is such an amazing place. Many people are happy to live there, including very good GPs, and they have come together to try to get this sorted. They do not care if they have to build it themselves or if one is going to be built. However, they need to know what is happening because in the meantime they are at maximum capacity. As a result people are suffering, they do not have access and they go to UHL, which is where we do not want them to go.