Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I raise the issue of podiatry care. It is a significant issue nationally and is a major issue in my part of the world down in west Cork. The level of podiatry care that is being provided by the HSE at the moment is very limited. We have had patients come to my office in the past number of years who have been waiting 18 or 19 months for appointments. We have a huge issue as to how to make sure that the cohort who need podiatry care have the opportunity to get it. We had the same Commencement matter debate in October 2022 and we asked for an update on the recruitment campaign that was happening. At the time, we were told that in my area, which is the CH04, 15 of the 25 posts were vacant. This is really significant when you take into consideration what we are talking about here. When 15 of the 25 posts were vacant in March 2022, we realise why we have a huge issue. I know the Minister of State has a unique understanding of the geography of west Cork. We had patients being moved from Bandon to Bantry, from Bantry to Skibbereen, from Clonakilty to Skibbereen. It was hectic and was all over the place. The geographical distance that patients had to travel, sometimes in areas without major public transportation routes, was absolutely huge and it made no logical sense. This really affected a cohort who needed help.

The obvious knock-on implication is that the private podiatry services are overloaded beyond all belief at the moment. A person would be waiting three to four months for a private appointment in west Cork today. The entire system is crumbling at the moment. Finding an avenue or a pathway to make sure we can get appropriate podiatry care into places like Bantry, Skibbereen, Clonakilty, and Bandon, is really important. I realise that there is a third level podiatry course in the University of Galway. There is a really significant issue about trying to make sure we get new recruits into the system itself. It is an avenue we need to start talking about to make sure we have more recruits coming through that podiatry course and maybe a second course somewhere in Ireland. In the long term we have an issue going forward for the whole country; in the short term, west Cork in particular is really badly affected. Will the Minister of State provide an update as to where we are with the recruitment process? How are we regarding the huge gap in the service itself? Last March, we had something like 15 of 25 posts vacant. Do we have movement on that? What can I tell my constituents regarding this really important issue?