Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, asked me to thank the Senator for raising this issue and welcomes the opportunity to provide an update on the development of primary care centres in County Monaghan to the House.

A central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated healthcare with service delivery oriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a "home first" approach. Primary care centres play an essential role in the delivery of that objective and significant progress has been made in the delivery of these centres nationally with 167 opened to date and a further 13 currently in construction. In community healthcare organisation, CHO, area 1, which covers the counties of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo, there are currently 23 primary care centres in operation. In County Monaghan specifically, there has been the addition of a new primary care centre in Carrickmacross, which became operational in April 2022. Furthermore, an additional two primary care centres are currently in construction in County Monaghan, Clones primary care centre and north Monaghan primary care centre in Monaghan town, with both due to become operational in the coming months.

With regard to Clones primary care centre, the construction process is the final stages. Commissioning and demonstrations are ongoing prior to the expected handover to HSE estates in early July. Subject to a successful handover, HSE estates expects that this primary care centre in Clones will be operational in August. When operational, the services available will include public health nursing, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, social work, psychology and dietetics services alongside GP services. The construction of north Monaghan primary care centre was recently completed with the final handover to HSE estates taking place on 30 June.The HSE has informed the Minister that the centre is currently at the equipping stage and it is expected this building will be operational in August. The HSE has advised that a wide range of services will be available from north Monaghan primary care centre including public health nursing, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, dentistry, ophthalmology, social work, psychology, mental health services and dietetics as well as GP services. An additional primary care centre is to be located in Castleblayney. This centre is at the early planning phase and is to be delivered via the operational lease model. An application for planning permission has been lodged, and once that planning process has concluded, the new primary care centre can progress through to the next stages of development, and it will then be possible to provide more detailed timelines for the delivery of that centre. The development of these primary care centres will be a welcome addition to the people and healthcare workers of County Monaghan, and I assure the Senator this Government remains committed to the provision of primary care centres throughout the country and, indeed, in County Monaghan.