Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister of State is not in the Department of Health. I commend him on the incredible work he is doing in his own Department.

I raised this matter in July 2020, February 2021 and June 2021; on 23 February 2023; with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in March 2023; and with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, on 1 June 2023. I can tell the Minister of State that three quarters of the speech he has just delivered has been the same since July 2020. Three years on, there is no reason to believe we are in any way more advanced, to be perfectly honest.

I asked a reasonably straightforward question about whether the Davitt Road site is being considered. I can read between the lines that the straight answer would be "No". It seems that we are not considering a primary care centre for there, that there will not be any advance and that there is no way to expedite this in the manner in which the people of Drimnagh deserve. The Minister of State has given us a very disappointing response. The final paragraph, which begins "All capital development proposals must progress...", is another way of saying that we are in a process and that the people who are in primary school now might get it sometime as an elder care centre. It is not good enough. It needs to be delivered with timelines that somebody is answerable for because it is not happening in time and with respect for the community and the people of Drimnagh.