Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. This is an exceptional plan. It is an extraordinary piece of work, and as the Minister can see, I have marked on it everything which is of relevance to my home constituency of Dublin South-Central. I confess I have not had the opportunity to get out and itemise all of the uplift it involves and the additional beds and services it will provide. However, it is considerable and I intend to itemise that over the next few days.

There are considerable investments going into Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin. There are also the main national children's hospital, the Coombe Hospital, St James's Hospital and Cherry Orchard Hospital, and while these benefit all the local community, they also benefit people from across the country. I am very grateful for that.

I want to focus on another investment, which is not even in this plan but which is coming through, and how it engages with a proposed investment which is mentioned in the plan, and that is the interaction between Davitt Road and Curlew Road. The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group is undertaking a rapid-build development on Davitt Road which it expects to begin in quarter 1 of 2025. The group is proposing to put in there a cancer care centre with diagnostic and research laboratories, accommodation for healthcare staff, which is a really welcome and instrumental change, and a primary care centre to include day care services for the elderly. It is not in the Minister's plan. It is the former Unilever site which is owned by the HSE and has been for the last number of years. I appreciate I might be taking the Minister unawares on that, but in it there are fantastic plans which are very concrete at this stage. There is what is in this plan and then there is so much more to come.

I do a lot of work with a group called Dynamic Drimnagh, which is extraordinary, cross-sector, and in businesses and the local community. It has a really fantastic plan for Drimnagh which it has worked through with Dublin City Council. It is very excited about the proposed Davitt Road development and the rapid build element of that. For years, the Minister has come in here and I have nagged him about the Curlew Road primary care centre which is planned, because that was supposed to be providing the Mother McAuley Centre and Alzheimer's centre. However, it looks like this Davitt Road plan will duplicate some of what was proposed there. I am making a representation to the Minister to say that an organisation like Dynamic Drimnagh would really welcome an uplift of the Davitt Road. It has access from Galtymore Road. It has access on Davitt Road. It would be so much more accessible to the Drimnagh community if it were actually the main plan and if that were in train.

On the one hand, I would welcome if the Minister could come out, visit and speak to the group. It would really value that and is very excited about where all of this is at. However, I note that we are the design team phase for Curlew Road and the Drimnagh primary care centre within this plan, and that is really welcome, although we have been at design team phase for a long time - I might just throw that in. However, maybe that slowed knowing that there are others coming in, and the campaign of Dynamic Drimnagh has actually been to locate the primary care centre where the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group is planning to do so.

There is a little bit of tying up there. I have been asked to represent it. There is a huge urgency for primary care in Drimnagh, and they have long waited for it. It was announced in November 2019 and it was advocated for years before that. Another question on that would be if there is a feasibility study regarding both sides of Curlew Road and Davitt Road It would be very valuable to see how they interact and where those discussions and plans are. I appreciate the Minister may not be aware of all that is going on in this as yet, but I would really value a discussion about it and to include Dynamic Drimnagh in that. That would be very welcome, and I thank the Minister.