Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith ag an Leas-Chathaoirleach. Ar an gcéad dul síos, cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Burke. He is welcome to the House to take this Commencement matter, which is a matter of great importance to me personally and to the community in Ballaghaderreen on the Roscommon and Mayo border. However, it is definitely in County Roscommon.

I know the Minister of State will probably tell me there are issues with this particular project to get a primary care centre into the town of Ballaghaderreen, however, I await his initial response. I point out that the town of Ballaghaderreen has had a significant increase in population over recent years. I was looking at some figures with a party colleague, Mr. Aidan Sampey, who has been raising this issue with me. It is fair to say there has been an increase in the population of Ballaghaderreen of between 40% to 50% over the past seven or eight years. Ballaghaderreen is a very proud town and it is very community-oriented. It has taken in many migrants over the years. It made national news on numerous occasions when it took in the Syrian people. It has taken in Nigerians, Ukrainians, people from Somalia and other places as well. Of course, there is a vibrant Irish community in the Ballaghaderreen area as well. It is crucial that despite whatever roadblocks there are, we take this project very seriously and get it established in the town of Ballaghaderreen.

There are two doctors in the town and they are under pressure. Their patients are under pressure. We need to up the health service in the Ballaghaderreen area. One of the doctors, Dr. Garvey, offered his own site to the authorities to establish that particular primary care centre. We certainly need to improve the services there because of the flood of people into the town and there are a significant amount of families in the region as well. It would be a wonderful statement to the local community were we able to put this project forward. Obviously, it is not going to happen overnight but we need to lay the foundation now and deal with the problems that are there. I know there are problems there that have to be dealt with. It is very important that we move on boldly on this particular project and that we do whatever we have to do to get that project over the line and get it established in the next few years, if we can.

As I said at the outset, this is a project that is badly needed in the town of Ballaghaderreen and in the wider west Roscommon area. There are places like Tibohine, Lisacul and Gortaganny, which are in a very rural area of west Roscommon. Many of the people in those rural areas would travel to Ballaghaderreen as their local town. I will not delay any further as I have made the case, plain and simple. I await the response. Whatever comes out of this today, I hope it will become an absolute priority for the HSE to start working seriously on dealing with the problems that are there in order to move this project on.

In conclusion, this was first initiated as far back as around 2012 and it has not come to fruition. I await the Minister of State's answer with interest.