Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State would not defend the stripping out of public health nurses from the service to a town the size of Killarney. That decision would never be made because it is seen as a distinct area and town deserving of and entitled to its own service. Drimnagh is no different. Just because it is in Dublin city does not mean it does not deserve to be red-circled and have its own services. The people of Drimnagh have been let down since 2011 and have not had a delivery of the services or a prioritisation. They got a wishy-washy promise of a primary care centre but did not get actual plans or decisions. Now we are stripping out their public health nurses as well. All that is happening is that what they had is being diminished and diluted all the time. It is not good enough and needs to change. The people in Drimnagh deserve to be prioritised as a matter of urgency. This decision needs to be addressed. How many other centres were considered to have public health nurses drawn from them to preserve the public health nurse service in the Curlew Road centre? Nowhere else, because they are handy people to pull over to the Long Mile Road and maybe the people of Drimnagh will not have anything to say. However, the people of Drimnagh will have a lot to say about this. It is not acceptable and the decision needs to be reversed.