Louise O'Reilly
Dublin Fingal West · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I welcome this debate this afternoon and am happy to be able to make a small contribution to it. I grew up in a Border town. I ended up in that town because my father was a trade union organiser who represented workers on both sides of the Border for a long number of years and, in fact, went on to be based in the North for a long time.”
“I am fortunate enough to represent a constituency that is very firmly in the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor. Before partition, as we know, Belfast was a thriving industrial powerhouse. Partition put a lid on the potential of that city to grow and flourish.”
“When we talk about Irish unity, we should frame that discussion as one about potential for growth, the potential for all-Ireland working and all-Ireland business. Between Belfast and Dublin, there are five universities, numerous colleges of further education and training, and businesses that are ready to scale up.”
“As the debate on Irish unity advances, and it is advancing despite what some of the people opposite would like to happen, we need to frame that discussion in a positive way. We need to look clearly for those opportunities while acknowledging the challenges. We are not blind to the challenges.”
“If her letter does not have any impact - let us be honest; it has not had any impact - the Minister of State might outline what he will do that might go a bit further than writing a letter. We know that devices are essential. We know that parents want their kids to be able to participate.”
“I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. I was chatting to my dad as I was coming in and told him I would be debating this motion in relation to supports for parents this morning. He reminded me, of course, that it was the Labour Party in government that cut those very supports.”
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“I urge it to support it, enact in full the occupied territories Bill, support our legislation on the sale of Israeli war bonds and do everything it can, because it will be judged not by its words but by its actions.”
“The use of the term “wounded child, no surviving family” has emerged as part of this terror. The kids are being starved to death. Tens of thousands of children are at risk of death from starvation, and the blockade must be ended. Children are starving less than a couple of miles from food. It is really hard to believe that children are dying of starvation within sight of food. I cannot imagine what it must be like for parents and those who know food aid is close by but who are being blockaded and prevented from gaining access to it. I welcome the fact that the Government is not opposing this motion, but it well knows the difference between not opposing a motion and supporting it.”
“I thank Deputy Duncan Smith for moving this motion. We in Sinn Féin are proud to be co-signatories. I send my solidarity to Sophie Ní Choimín, atá ar stailc ocrais anois. Earlier this month, Dr. Trish Scanlan reminded us in the audiovisual room that for death to be counted by the Gazan health Ministry, three criteria must be fulfilled: the person must have died as a result of a violent attack; the person must be presented to a hospital; and someone must be able to identify the person. These criteria do not include the thousands lost under the rubble, nor those who have died from a lack of access to medicine or from starvation, hypothermia or drought. Israel is committing genocide. It has been called a genocide on children because that is what it is.”
“It would eliminate, to a huge extent, the perverse incentives that, apparently, have been highlighted now. Those perverse incentives have served to let children down. In my final few seconds, I will say that parents will have a voice in this Chamber because we will ensure they have a voice here.”
“I do not know what the Government is saying to parents who cannot afford private health insurance. I do not know what the message is to them this evening. The Government has created a system whereby there are two tiers. Mechanisms such as the National Treatment Purchase Fund create perverse incentives. It has been seven years since I met with the then Minister for Health, now Tánaiste. I outlined to him a Sinn Féin proposal. It works in other jurisdictions and we had modified it for this jurisdiction. We called it Comhliosta. It was a single, integrated waiting list management system that would remove those perverse incentives and ensure the health service was working at maximum capacity so as to enable a person waiting to get the next best place for them.”
“The consultant identified by the 2021 internal investigation into CHI, who, it is alleged, was enriching himself or herself at the expense of sick children, may be a pretty poor example of this behaviour but the current system subsidises the failing of the public sector by funding the private sector. The Minister's colleague Deputy McGreehan said earlier that the parents with private health insurance wanted to do their best for their children and get the best care and that is why they have private health insurance. Imagine saying that. That is from one of the Minister's colleagues. With private health insurance, people should get themselves as far away from the public system controlled by the Government as they possibly can. Do right by your kids, and get private health insurance; that is some message for parents.”
“Parents are very worried tonight. They are worried that their child might have had an unnecessary operation. They look to the Government for answers but all they seem to get is an endless commentary. I heard the Minister's commentator-in-chief, her boss, the Tánaiste on the news earlier. He was outraged. He described, in detail, the long lists of all the people whom he thinks should have been paying attention, conveniently forgetting his own role as a former Minister for Health and the role of his own Government in yet another scandal. There was the scoliosis scandal, the CervicalCheck scandal and the children's hospital overrun scandal - the list goes on and on. The questions that parents are asking are fairly simple: could this have been avoided?”
“As I said, they are still trying to make up the deficit because they were creased during the austerity years and that funding has not been made up. As well as increasing funding to the LEADER programme, there needs to be a real and sustained focus on social and affordable homes for working people to rent and buy. At the moment, it feels like the market is very cruel and very much against young people who might want to buy a home and establish themselves in a rural community.”
“I am sure they will because this is an issue about which they have become incredibly exercised, and for good reason. I am using St. Senan's as an example because it was the club that was highlighted in the RTÉ report, but in the immediate surrounding areas 66% of the houses are holiday homes. When a house comes onto the market, young people who might want to stay in the area and are interested in playing GAA or providing a few players for a team in the future are being outbid by people who are coming into the area. I know that in the Minister's county, an innovative suggestion was made regarding holiday homes. I would be interested in knowing what he might have to say about that. It seems like rural communities are up against it all the time.”
“From his previous brief the Minister will know a complete bags was made out of the right to remote working. The legislation has left people without that right. Access to remote working is one way to address this issue. An increase in funding for the LEADER programme and a reversal of the cuts imposed during austerity are required because funding has not caught up. There is work to be done in the here and now, but the Minister also needs to examine the historical damage done and rectify it in order that rural communities will be in a position to survive.”
“It is the job of the Minister to treat us to the greatest hits of his Government and all of the rest, but in truth the statistics and facts speak for themselves. The situation was laid out very clearly for us in the RTÉ report. St. Senan's in Kilkee last reached a county final in 2009, when it had 52 adult players on its senior and junior teams. In 2025, the club now has access to at most 23 adult players for the junior team, while at underage level it has been amalgamated with two clubs immediately to the west of it, O'Curry's and Naomh Eoin, but it is still struggling. When an organisation like the GAA is coming together to highlight an issue like this, I am glad the Minister is listening, but we want action and not just listening. The GAA has highlighted issues like access to remote working. We could be here all day.”
“I listened very carefully to a recent report on the "This Week" programme from reporter Peter O'Connell. He referenced rural decline and depopulation and linked it specifically to a number of GAA clubs in the west of Ireland. One was St. Senan's in Kilkee. I note the chairperson, Diarmuid Keane, referenced that rural towns need significant Government aid if they are to continue to be viable. I want to hear the plans of the Minister in that regard.”
“There must be consequences for the actions of the Israeli genocidal regime. In Ireland, we have a proud history of standing up against apartheid. Women like Mary Manning stood up against the South African apartheid. That is our history. We must be true to who we are. We must stand up to the apartheid Israeli regime and do everything. We must never stop, never look away, and never rest and say this is enough until there is a ceasefire and until the people of Palestine can begin to rebuild their lives.”
“We condemn the commentary of Benjamin Netanyahu about the ceasefire, when he said that the Israeli military will enter Gaza "with full force". Jesus Christ. What is "with full force" going to mean when we have seen the brutality that regime is capable of? Nobody is saying that the Government is doing nothing, but where the Government can do more, it must do more. It could start by passing the occupied territories Bill in full, not a watered-down version of it. It could give its support to an Teachta Pearse Doherty's legislation to end the sale of Israeli war bonds. It could stop warplanes using Shannon. As I came into the Chamber, I read on my phone that Israel has fired warning shots at a delegation visiting the Jenin refugee camp. Israel blockades and commits genocide because there are no consequences.”
“I send my solidarity to the people of Palestine. I condemn the Israeli genocide and the ongoing starvation of the people of Gaza. A blockade is preventing humanitarian aid from being brought in and it is certain that thousands more men, women and children will die. These deaths are entirely preventable. We cannot turn our eyes away. Every day, we are reminded by people living in Gaza that we must not look away and that we must not stop talking about Palestine, but it is hard to look at children being slaughtered. It is hard to see their emaciated bodies. Of course we want to turn away. It is hard to see parents with their children's remains in bits in plastic bags, but still, we cannot look away. There must be a full and immediate ceasefire.”
“Another family with a boy who is two, and on the waiting list for the CDNT in Balbriggan, has been told by a healthcare professional that the wait for an assessment could be between four and six years. The family has been told it is really important he gets speech and language therapy and occupational therapy now but he cannot get it until he has been assessed. Shame on this Government.”
“We understand that it is complicated but we also understand that the people who caused the crisis will in no way be the ones who will fix it. I had every right to be angry when I heard the Government representative from my own constituency read out her script, commentating on the length of time the kids in my area have been left by her Government. Shame on her. She quotes the shameful record of her Government. She quotes the statistics but she fails to recognise the humanity behind it. Take one family with a two-year-old son awaiting an assessment of need for over a year. They are desperate to try to speed up the process so he receives the help he needs. They are privately paying for speech and occupational therapy: €190 a week; €95 a session; €10,000 a year. They have to earn €16,000 a year to pay that.”
“How dare she say that when the figures obtained by my colleague, an Teachta Kerrane, show that 10,000 more children will join the list by the end of this year? I want to recognise the work done by advocates like FUSS Balbriggan and parents like Jodie Reid who have been forced onto the streets to campaign for services for their kids. In my constituency, kids wait the longest. We have been utterly failed by the Government so when the junior Minister, Deputy Naughton tells us that it cannot be fixed overnight, the Minister will forgive me for reminding her that Fine Gael has been in government for 14 years. That is almost 6,000 overnights. I do not know how many more overnights the Government wants to be afforded.”
“She should not have to protest outside the Dáil for basic services for her brothers but let us be honest - she is here because they have been left with no choice. Like any campaigner who has been around, she will not be fooled by all the Government’s chat about committees and how well it is doing and all the backslapping that it is doing to itself this evening. It does not fool Cara; it does not fool us, not even for a moment. The Government has created this crisis. That is why we are here. It is not Cara’s fault or ours – the blame rests with the Government. The buck stops with the people on the big bucks. Action is what is needed, not more fine words. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, told us the Government is moving in the right direction.”
“I want to welcome Cara Darmody and her dad, Mark, to the Gallery. It is unfortunate they are here. I would draw their attention to the fact that the Government has circulated its response to this debate already so no matter what is said here on the floor of the Dáil, its script is already written. It has already decided what it is going to say. It has made it very clear it has no intention of listening to what the combined Opposition has to say. It has made its mind up. It has its script written and will deliver it there at the end. In fact, I will bring a copy up to the Gallery and they can have a read of it if they would like to. I want to pay tribute to Cara and her dad. Cara should not be here this evening. She should be at home.”
“If the Minister of State could meet this person, she has done nothing wrong and it feels like she is being punished. He can live where he damn well pleases. She is the victim yet she is the one who feels like she is being punished. I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I will send on the details to him. I hope somebody can take a look at this.”
“The local authority does not feel like it has the latitude. I know that exceptions can be made. I understand how awful it is for people on housing lists and I never come in here to plead a personal case for someone. I am doing it simply because it really does not feel to me like the local authority believes it has the scope to look at this separately and to offer a little latitude. I know the people who work hard in Fingal County Council. They are good people and they want to do right by this but they clearly do not feel like they have the wherewithal to do it. I will absolutely feed into the strategy, but perhaps if there were a signal from the Custom House, that might encourage them. I reiterate that I deal with cases all the time. The Minister of State does; we all do. We tell people that is the way it is and they have to wait.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his response. He referred to zero tolerance, but it does not look like zero tolerance because this man can live wherever he bloody well likes and Janet is stuck. I wish the Minister of State could meet this woman because all she has done is work hard. Through no fault of her own, she finds herself in a situation where she could be waiting 30 years to get permanent housing. She does not earn enough to buy a house, but that should not mean that she does not have somewhere secure to live. The Minister of State says two things in the reply. He says, "As regards the waiting list for social housing, it is not possible for a household previously on one social housing ... list to carry the time spent ...". He can see that this is clearly what I am asking. I am asking that some accommodation be made.”
“However, I have been everywhere with this and I am just asking somebody in the Department of housing to please examine this case and work with me to try to get some resolution for a person who has done nothing wrong at all yet who will find herself in an impossible situation.”
“The person who assaulted her is still a threat to her. The Garda has told her not to go back to where she was. If she refuses a second offer of a house, she will be suspended from the housing list for a year. If she transfers to the Fingal County Council list, she will lose the 15 years spent on the Dublin City Council list. I understand how the lists work and the Minister of State understands how the lists work. I understand that there has to be fairness. I suppose I am looking for special treatment because this is a very special case. I do not often come to the floor of the Dáil to argue for individual cases; it is usually more general issues.”
“This woman is at the end of her rope because she is about to be offered a house but she will have no choice but to refuse it because, on the advice of An Garda Síochána, she cannot move back to where she lived previously. One of her choices is precarious renting. If she changes to the Fingal County Council housing list, she will lose those 15 years she had, which is really unfair, and in my constituency, in Fingal County Council, although they may deny it, you wait 14 years. That would give her a total of 29 years. All she is doing is trying to keep her kids safe, trying to keep herself safe and trying to work in, live in and contribute to the community where she feels safe. She does not want to skip any queue but she does want - and I think she deserves - some form of recognition for the length of time she has been on the housing list.”
“Her abuser is now out of prison and living in that area. I have submitted letters from An Garda Síochána which will prove that this woman cannot safely go back to where she was originally on the housing list. She feels safe where she is at the moment, and that is incredibly important. I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate that. I understand exactly how the queuing system goes, and God knows I know people have to wait. Janet knows that too; however, she has waited 15 years. There is a need for somebody in a position of authority to look at this case for what it is. It is a unique case. I have not come across many, if any, cases like it and I have been nine years in this job. I operate a lot of clinics and see many people. It is a very unusual situation.”
“She went as far away as she could, which was up to north County Dublin, and she settled there with her children. She is safe and secure in north County Dublin. Her children are in school there and she works there. All her support structures are in north County Dublin and she has absolutely no wish to go back to Dublin city. She does, however, need secure, permanent housing, which she cannot get in the private rented market, and she is renting privately at the moment. Due to the amount of time that has passed, Janet now finds herself about to be offered a house because she is at the very top of the list. She has waited 14 to 15 years. However, can the Minister of State imagine that a woman with children who wants a secure house will be offered one and will have to turn it down because she would have to move back?”
“I will illustrate the point I wish to make to the Minister of State by using an example from my constituency. I will talk to him about a lady who I will call her Janet because I do not want to say her name. In 2010, Janet joined the Dublin City Council housing list. She was eligible for social housing at that stage. I will not get all political about the reason we have a housing crisis. The Minister of State will well know that and, I assume, will take some responsibility for it. In 2015, Janet was viciously assaulted. When I say viciously, I mean that the woman nearly died. She will bear the scars of that for the rest of her life. Her former partner was rightly sent to prison for a long time and she left the area where they had been living. That area is in Dublin city.”
“What workers want is the right to organise, and they need that. The Minister of State is nodding but his script absolutely contradicts every commitment he has given to workers. He says it and then does not deliver. Workers do not need an action plan to promote collective bargaining because they know collective bargaining is good idea. Study after study shows that. What workers need is a Government on their side and the right to organise.”
“We see that every day of the week, but the Government was like this anyway. It never had an interest in workers or their ' rights, and that was writ large all over the Minister of State's script. He talked about the compelling reasons to oppose the Bill. There are not any. I read the script and then read it again. There are no reasons contained within it. If the Minister of State is honest, he will know that. The Minister of State referenced the commitment to finalising an action plan to promote collective bargaining. I thought that was a joke. You do not need to promote collective bargaining. Workers are not stupid. A blind man on a galloping donkey knows that if you are in a trade union, you will be better off at work. Workers know that. What they want is protection. Unions know that.”
“It knows that its friends in industry and its high-earner friends all have nice, tidy private pensions. It will move heaven and earth to ensure those pensions are protected, but ordinary workers and workers on low incomes can wait. The same is true of paid domestic leave. We proposed ten days; the Government cut that in half. Again, there has been delay after delay. Workers are at the back of the queue time and time again. The Government talked an awful lot about the living wage in the run-up to the election. It was not even five minutes in office before it kicked that to touch. Again, that is a benefit for low-income workers so it would have absolutely no interest to the Minister of State or his partners in government. It is not even that we see the influence of Deputy Michael Lowry.”
“I will start by thanking the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. I also genuinely commend the Minister of State for delivering that script with a straight face. I was quite shocked by what I heard. You would honestly think that it was worth celebrating that the Government had promised ten days' paid statutory sick leave and is now cutting that in half. You would think workers would be on the streets absolutely commending the Government for the fact that it has kicked auto-enrolment to touch yet again. How many times is it now? The Government has been talking about auto-enrolment for 20 years. How many times has it kicked this to touch? The Government knows the people who will benefit most from auto-enrolment are low-income workers.”
“I will say a few words about Kay, the supercomputer, which was decommissioned by the Minister's party when in government in 2023. This piece of infrastructure is essential if we are serious about research and development. If you talk to people in the research, development and innovation space, they will tell you exactly that. Is the strategy the Minister referred to in his remarks intended to augment or replace access to a supercomputer? Having to go abroad for it is not ideal, as I am sure he appreciates. Are we to expect a replacement for Kay, or is there something else in the pipeline? He might clarify that.”
“That is four hours per day, and exactly as the Minister referenced that means you cannot fully participate in student life, and you spend all of your time absolutely exhausted. Fingal County Council has identified skills shortages in the areas of agrifood, digitisation, life sciences, logistics and fintech but Dublin Fingal West, one of the youngest constituencies in the State, does not have a third level institution. I would appreciate if the Minister, in his concluding remarks, would address this fact. The students in my constituency are the victims of the Government's housing crisis. They are now the victims of its increased fares, so not only do they have to commute long distances, which absolutely wrecks them, they also have to pay more for the privilege. This is something that should be addressed.”
“I was the first person in my family to go to university and this is something I am incredibly proud of. Being able to access third level education had a transformative impact on my life. I am the living proof of the impact third level education can have. The transformative potential of third level education should be available to every single person. Every young person should have the chance I had. However, students in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West are stuck in their parents' back bedrooms. They cannot move out. They cannot afford to rent in Dublin city or anywhere else in the State they might get a place to study. There are no third level institutions in my constituency. Students have to commute long distances. For example, if you live in Balbriggan, it will take you up to two hours to get to UCD each way.”
“I am told that eligibility for the school transport scheme will have regard to ethos and language. To be frank with the Minister, it does not seem to have regard to the ethos when it is one of a non-religious nature. This is something that needs to be looked at urgently. In the response from the Department there was mention of a number of pilots in operation. I would like to know when they will conclude and when we will know what the outcome is. More importantly, I urge the Minister to take a look at the criteria to ensure that parents who want their children to continue in the education system they started in primary school can do so. They should have the right to continue it through secondary school.”
“If their parents have chosen nondenominational or multidenominational education for them at the age of five we do not need to be at genius to figure out it is unlikely to change by the time the child reaches the age of 13. Therefore, a similar type of education will be wanted for secondary school. Multidenominational or nondenominational education is not just a primary school thing; it is also a secondary school thing. I want to raise with the Minister an issue of concern in my constituency. In Skerries we have an Educate Together primary school, and there is also one in Rush and Lusk. There is no Educate Together secondary school in either of these places, unfortunately. This means parents have to ensure their kids can get to school. I have corresponded with the Department on this and I have submitted parliamentary questions.”
“For any parent who does not wish their children to participate in what we might call the older or more established model of schooling, it is always a battle. The Minister knows this herself from her constituency. It is always a battle. It is always a fight. People always feel they have to fight the system simply for the opportunity for their children to be able to attend the primary school of their choice and, having attended the primary school of their choice, to be able to attend the secondary school of their choice. This is something that is a constant source of amazement to me as there is nothing more certain on the day a child starts primary school than that the child in all likelihood will need a secondary school.”
“I thank the Social Democrat Deputies for tabling the motion this afternoon and giving us a chance to have this discussion. Similar to Deputy O'Rourke, as well as being a parliamentarian I am a parent. It is a long time since I had a child in primary school but in order for her to be able to attend an Educate Together school I had to fight very hard simply to get her a place. This is the experience of parents who want a choice outside of the Roman Catholic model. Not everybody wants their kids in such a school. Even people who are Roman Catholic are quite happy to have their kids get their religious instruction at home. It is a private matter and that is possibly the best place for it.”
“It meant making an application to the hardship fund in UCD to get it, but I did that and I accessed affordable childcare. Since I could access affordable childcare my husband was able to work full time and I was able to work part time and I was able to study. If I had not been able to access that affordable childcare, I would not have been able to go to college and would not have had the opportunities and chances I have had since. I look around my constituency and I see women who are being denied those very same opportunities because they cannot access affordable childcare. There are 43 organisations in the alliance for public childcare. The Minister should meet with them and hear what they have to say and act on their asks.”
“I represent one of the youngest constituencies in the State, so the issue of the shortage of childcare places is felt very acutely by my constituents. It is a very real issue. There is an acute shortage of places for childcare within my constituency. It is forcing parents, although let us be frank, mostly women, to have to curtail their participation in the workforce. What does that mean? It means people will have trouble if trying to get a mortgage, particularly with the current crowd in government who seem intent on pushing up the cost of housing beyond all believable figures. It means that for many families the juggle is not just difficult; it is becoming impossible. Access to affordable childcare is a game changer. When I was in college, I was very fortunate to be able to access subsidised childcare.”
“I commend my colleague, Deputy Claire Kerrane, on the motion this evening and on all the work she has done inasmuch as has been outlined. We were the only party that went to the electorate with a credible, well-thought-out, well-constructed plan to deliver affordable public childcare. At the last election, both of the parties of Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - I am not sure what the opinions of Deputy Lowry and his crew are - could not walk more than 2 m without talking about affordable childcare. However, it turns out that that was just another useless, meaningless soundbite from them because absolutely nothing has been done in this regard. In fact, as I understand it, they want to bring us backwards.”
“I ask, on behalf of the people of Balbriggan and the area surrounding it who will be able to utilise the Balbriggan Primary Care Centre, that the Government please include in its immediate plans phlebotomy, X-ray and diagnostic services for Balbriggan Primary Care Centre. It is a fast-growing area. The demand is only going in one direction. I ask that at the very least the deficits be made up and some provision be made to future-proof it. The Minister of State mentioned Sláintecare but what is happening in Balbriggan and the areas served by Balbriggan Primary Care Centre is the very opposite of Sláintecare. It is telling people to get into their cars and travel for services.”
“It is acute in Balbriggan and yet every time I ask whether the Minister will look to directly employing GPs, even just to clear the backlog, the answer is stonewalled and silenced. The Minister of State mentioned the community specialist teams for older people, the children's disability network team and the community mental health teams but none of those are staffed; none of them are fully staffed. All those teams require recruitment. I reiterate that the HSE has told me in no uncertain terms that there are no immediate plans to develop phlebotomy, X-ray or diagnostic services in Balbriggan Primary Care Centre.”
“What I heard was "you must wait, you must travel, you are not getting the services." I have been at this for nine years. We have a primary care centre and it is a white elephant or whatever that expression is. It is not being utilised to its greatest extent. There are empty rooms and diagnostic suites that should and could have facilities in them to ensure people did not have to get into their cars or call an ambulance and travel outside of my area to put pressure on hospitals in other areas that are already under immense pressure. Balbriggan Primary Care Centre cannot even provide immunisation facilities for older people and children. There is a chronic waiting list for GPs in north County Dublin.”
“In this day and age, with all the commitments the Government has given and all the fine words it has said regarding Sláintecare, it should not be too much to ask that we have proper primary care services within my constituency of Dublin Fingal West to serve people living in towns like Rush, Lusk, Skerries, Balbriggan, Oldtown and all across north County Dublin. As I said, the absence of these services means my constituents must travel miles for very simple, basic healthcare services.”
“Alternatively, is the message to my constituents a simple one: they must wait and if they require simple services like an X-ray or diagnostics, they must travel outside the area? That is not good. It is not good for patients and it certainly is not good for my constituents. It makes a mockery of the commitments given under Sláintecare. Some years ago, I submitted a box full of petition postcards to the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris - I think I did the same when Stephen Donnelly was Minister for Health - requesting access to diagnostic services within my constituency. Rooms lie idle in a primary care centre while people are travelling miles to get simple services that should be available to them in their own community.”
“We have a primary care centre in Balbriggan that was set up on the back of what was generally regarded not just by me but in the media as a political stroke. We wonder sometimes in north County Dublin if perhaps the origins of our primary care centre is the reason why it is so neglected. The HSE will say it is operating at full capacity but it has 27 vacancies waiting to be filled. It has also been confirmed to me that there are no immediate plans to develop phlebotomy, X-ray or diagnostic services in Balbriggan Primary Care Centre. If the Government is not going to put it into Balbriggan, which is the biggest population centre in my constituency, where is it going to put it?”
“At least once a week on the social media forums such as Balbriggan Connected or Skerries Connected or in Rush, Lusk and the surrounding areas, somebody will post into the group asking if anyone knows of any GP who is either taking patients or taking patients with a medical card. There then begins a succession of replies advising people that no, there are no GPs in the area, or even if you have a GP in the area, you will wait for days and in some cases weeks to see the same GP. The Government talks a lot about Sláintecare and has done precious little about it. I sat on the future of healthcare committee and I remember the lofty plans. It was adopted by almost every party in here but it falls to the Government to implement it and it has badly fallen short. Nowhere is that more evident than in my own constituency.”