Senator John McGahon- speech from 2 Oct 2024

Thank you very much. Leader, today I would like to raise two issues. The first issue is in relation to primary care centres, which we all know work extremely well around this country, in particular the primary care centre in Dundalk. To give people a brief context, you have an old shopping centre that has been disused for well over a decade and a half, if not 15 years. It is completely derelict. It is exactly where our brand new primary centre is going, right in the heart of Dundalk town, really important. Unfortunately, it was delayed. because of planning objections from the previous owners of that shopping centre, but it has been passed by on board Planola and it is now going ahead. And I would really like to perhaps ask for a debate about primary care centres, to have the Minister in to give us a very clear and definitive timeline. Now that the planning side is resolved for the Dundalk primary care centre, how soon can we see shovels on the ground? How soon can we see construction happening? There is a whole range of services going into it. For example, you are going to have four primary care teams that are going to deal with everything from public health nurses, from public health nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language, dietetics, you are going to have dedicated mental health services team, that is more important than ever, particularly in Dundalk in recent weeks. You are going to have disability services and for adult and children's teams. Now, that is a huge amount of services, but with such a huge amount of services, you are going to need a huge amount of staff. And straight away, there is at least a minimum of 50 staff there. What are the HSE's plans for staff recruitment? To make sure that there will be the right amount and the right amount of staff that is needed, and to find out and get some sort of a definition and timing about how soon this project can start. It has been in the pipes now for about six years. It was slowed down by planning. It has now been approved by on board Planola. We need to get people building on it as soon as possible. We need those primary care health centres right in the heart of Dundalk town and I would appreciate the Minister's help on it. Thank you.