Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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The area and village of Drimnagh is a very distinct community within the constituency of Dublin South-Central. It has its own unique character and is led by a representative organisation called Dynamic Drimnagh, which comprises a number of representative groups and organisations within the community and speaks for the community. Back in 2011, the people of Drimnagh were promised a primary care centre. This community of Drimnagh is the size of Killarney; it has that level of population. In December 2019, the then Minister for Health and the then local Deputy Catherine Byrne announced the primary care centre. I have been on the floor of this House asking the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, on numerous occasions for an update on where that primary care centre is at; it is delayed and delayed. It is 12 years since the first promise to that community. It now has two GPs and while it had a public health nurse up to April this year, it no longer does because that service was moved to Crumlin. It is being deprived of services continually. On 1 June this year, in this House, when the Minister came in to talk about capital expenditure in the health services, I raised with him that I was aware that there was a design team and work was ongoing on Curlew Road. I am sure the Minister of State's speech will be full of that. I also want to draw to his attention that on Davitt Road west, the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group is building an oncology service and has plans for a primary care centre. It is using a modular method that will be a very quick build. The delivery of that service could happen a lot faster if there was joined-up thinking and that could be the focus of the primary care centre for the people of Drimnagh. The Minister committed, on the record of this House, to give me a written response to that matter. I have not received anything, hence today's Commencement matter.

A town like Killarney would not be left without a primary care centre. The Minister recently opened the Rialto primary care centre. He talked, quite rightly, about how central to Sláintecare primary care centres are and having everything in a community available and accessible to that community because it takes the burden off hospitals and how fantastic that is. It is fantastic - the Rialto centre is an example of how it can be done and done well. The elephant in the room was that an entire community - Drimnagh - is invisible to the Department of Health; it is merely stripping out services from that entire community. It would not happen in a town outside of a suburb of Dublin but it is okay for Drimnagh to be subsumed into Crumlin and to be ignored as a community with a distinct character with a right to a local health service on its doorstep, which the Government has promised for 12 years. I am mindful that it was my party's Minister who announced this in 2019. It is in the capital plans. I have been told that Curlew Road will be shovel-ready for December 2024; I do not believe that date will be held to. That is part of a series of promises on which these people are let down. There is an ageing population who cannot travel to the Crumlin centre or to Armagh Road. They need something on their own doorstep and local to them.It confounds any sort of logic that nobody in the Department of Health is looking at what the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group executive is doing. It is proposing to build in Davitt Road, in the middle of the Drimnagh community, even though a competing project is proceeding elsewhere. I need to know that this has been considered and I need an update for the people of Drimnagh in this regard.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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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.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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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.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I will not read the closing statement because the Senator will know much of what is in it already. I will speak directly with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I will see him in the Chamber today or tomorrow, and I will pass the views of the Senator on to him directly.I would say that, from the text, the Davitt Road site does not seem to have been ruled out. Yet, as the Senator said, from reading between the lines, that would appear to be the case. However, it does not say “No”. That is what I am interpreting as well.

Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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It does not say "Yes" either.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Indeed.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. Senator Seery Kearney has constantly been highlighting this issue. I think I was in the Chair the last time she raised this as a Commencement matter. I say well done to her. All you can do is ask.