Health Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10
============================================================

Lorraine Clifford-Lee (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I am very disappointed to hear the response from the Minister of State. I know there are no current plans to open a minor injury hub in Balbriggan. The Minister of State referred to Tallaght, Athlone, Carlow and Ballina, but we need to look to the future and the population demands. For the people of Balbriggan, the Smithfield rapid injury clinic and Connolly Hospital are even further away than Beaumont Hospital. It is completely unacceptable that a large population in north County Dublin is left without a basic service promised back in 2018. It is no good to the people in Balbriggan, Lusk, Rush or Skerries to hear that Tallaght, Athlone, Carlow and Ballina are getting minor injury units. We need one.
I am going to engage with the Minister of State and the Minister to make sure Balbriggan is put on the agenda for the next review. I suppose the tiny light at the end of the tunnel is that the HSE continues to review expansion needs. I am going to be advocating and making a very strong case until we deliver a minor injury unit for Balbriggan.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10