Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I have seen this before. Let us be honest. I will go back to what I said in my opening contribution; the population here has grown nearly twofold. We should be thankful that it has. During the Covid pandemic, many of the kids came home to live and work in the area and in their family homes. They have stayed in the area. Football team numbers are increasing. Everything is increasing. However, what has unfortunately been decreasing is emergency out-of-hours care services. The out-of-hours service contract covers from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every evening. In Listowel, it was initially from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. but that has disappeared. It is okay to say that someone will come out if it is important but, at the top end of north Kerry, that is not 25 minutes later but five hours later. It is just not good enough. For many people, it is not accessible although, if you do not have transport, someone will come out.

In the context of health, it is a case of picking and choosing. It is not sustainable. It is not something that can continue until we get a full service in the primary care centre in Listowel, as I have mentioned. To take anything else out of this is just not good enough.

On the out-of-hours service, the two areas of Ballybunion and Ballyheigue are on the Wild Atlantic Way. The population grows threefold or fourfold during the summer months. When do accidents happen and when do kids fall? It is almost always out of hours. There is nothing fast available. If I travel to Listowel tomorrow morning, the accident and emergency department will probably be clogged up. I would be clogging that system up and clogging up the whole HSE format. I ask for a written statement from the HSE that it will review this situation and what I have stated here on the floor of the Seanad as soon as possible. We need this. It is an urgent medical call from the people of north Kerry to the HSE and to SouthDoc management, who have not been forthcoming. Many councillors from the Listowel area have asked for these boys to come to the table and they have refused. I ask the HSE to review this with SouthDoc and to come back to the people of north Kerry with a positive answer.