Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, would like to thank the Senator for providing me with the opportunity to provide her with an update on the Drimnagh primary care centre, PCC, at Curlew Road, as well as an update on the HSE-owned site on Davitt Road in Drimnagh. The central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated healthcare with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services, to enable a home-first approach. Primary centres play an essential role in achieving that objective and significant progress has been made in the delivery of PCCs nationally. PCCs support the delivery of integrated care by facilitating closer co-ordination and co-operation between health professionals across different disciplines. They also provide a single point of access to services for an individual and can serve more broadly as a resource for the community.

The Drimnagh primary care centre will be located on the existing site at Curlew Road and will provide vital services within community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7, and specifically in the south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh. A design team has been appointed for the proposed Drimnagh primary care centre. A consultant has been appointed to prepare the strategic assessment report which is now under way. Planning permission has been granted. The proposed PCC at Curlew Road in Drimnagh will accommodate facilities for a primary care team, including addiction and older person services, three GP suites, a day care centre for persons with Alzheimer's disease, and a community centre including a crèche.

The site owned by the HSE at Davitt Road in Drimnagh is of strategic importance to the HSE and to the St. James's Hospital acute hospital campus, in particular. Currently, the site is being utilised as an essential temporary construction compound, as required for the construction of the national children's hospital. The HSE, in co-operation with St. James's Hospital, is progressing a development control plan document and specific detailed proposals for the use of the site. This work is ongoing and is of very real importance to support acute hospital services in this part of the city. Further planned development on the St. James's Hospital campus is required to fulfil Government commitments in the delivery of phase 2 of the critical care plan. This will require the ability to decant health activity from the St. James's campus to Davitt Road to enable the delivery of future critical care infrastructure. The development of the Davitt Road site is integral to the development of health infrastructure being progressed fully in line with programme for Government commitments, Government-approved health policies, and health service priorities and commitments to deliver universal healthcare and to facilitate Sláintecare. All capital development proposals must progress through a number of approval stages, in line with the public spending code, including detailed appraisal, planning, design and procurement, before funding for each stage can be confirmed. The successful completion of the various approval stages will determine the timeline for the delivery of a project. It is, therefore, not possible to provide a timeline for the development of the Davitt Road site at this time.