I will finish on this, as it is important. Not only were the claims not correct-----

-----but the total cost was not €24 million. It was €200,000-----

-----and the board got a third party to complete the work in a matter of weeks. We should be united in shining a light on this.

By the way, the main contractor still sent an invoice to the board for the €24 million.

I join the Deputy in offering my sincere condolences to Dr. Fitzsimons, her children and the entire family on their recent bereavement. The Gurteen health centre is located in south Sligo. The centre houses a public health nursing service, a day centre for older persons and the local GP practice. Local HSE primary care management has advised that it is aware of the issue of restricted space within the building for the GP practice. While it is not possible to extend the building, the HSE is conducting an options app…

It is clear that urgent remediation is required. It is welcome that the HSE intends to conduct the assessments and will be back within a couple of weeks. There is important additional good news for the area. The planned primary care centre in nearby Tubbercurry is due to commence building early next year, which is welcome. The existing primary and mental health care centre in Ballymote is to provide the majority of HSE primary services in the area. It is intended that this will allow for the reconfiguration and ref…

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge the work of Dr. Fitzsimons on women's health. I was delighted earlier this week to be able to expand that. This will be our fifth budget in a row where we really do prioritise women's healthcare. There have been a few important additions which Dr. Fitzsimons and all the other GPs will be aware of and will be part of. One is the expansion of IVF eligibility, which will make a big difference to a lot of couples. The first step on that fertility journey is with the GP. It is they who …

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge his ongoing advocacy in terms of dental services, particularly the children's services and the school-based programme. There have been challenges and children have been waiting too long. A good deal of the delay came about through Covid and the HSE is still in the process of catch-up. The Government invests over €200 million into oral healthcare services annually. To the points the Deputy has made around the waiting list, an additional €17 million in one-off funding has been inves…

I thank the Deputy. Rest assured there have never been as many staff. We are hearing claims about suppression of posts. The reality is that there are nearly 30,000 more healthcare workers in the HSE now than there were when this Government came in. This week through the budget we have funded another 3,500 new posts. At the end of this year there are about 2,500 funded posts vacant. Not only have we had a record level of healthcare workers in the country, but between now and the end of next year there is another 6,5…

There is no question but that should not be happening, and I will talk to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, about it in the context of disability services. There is a clear overlap between my world of health and oral health policy, and that Minister's brief of disability services. I fully agree with the Deputy. All children should be able to get the services, but particularly those who have additional needs and may not be able to articulate those needs as well as some other children. We are more than capable of this. …

Medical card provision is primarily based on financial assessment. In accordance with the Health Act 1970, eligibility for a medical card is determined by the HSE, which assesses each application on a qualifying financial threshold. The idea of granting medical cards or GP visit cards based on any particular disease or illness has been considered. It is a topic we discuss regularly in the Dáil. There are Deputies, for example, who have made a very reasonable case for cancer care patients. The proposal is that a can…

I will make two points. The first is on the discretionary cards. One in eight medical cards is discretionary, and that is meant to speak to exactly the kinds of cases the Deputy talks about. The discretionary medical card is issued to patients with big medical expenses. They might satisfy the gross income criterion but not the net income criterion. Once they have to pay all these medical expenses, they do not have enough money. That really is the purpose of the discretionary medical card. If the discretionary card …

Our clear goal is universal healthcare. One of the three pillars of universal healthcare is that it is affordable, so a lot of what we are doing is trying to make sure that people can access care quickly, that it is great care when they get it and that they can afford it. Any debate like this is very important to constantly reviewing and finding those patients who find themselves outside of the various criteria. It is usually by a small amount but it still causes a lot of hardship. The measures we have brought in w…

We could do an entire Dáil statement and debate on this issue, so I thank the Deputy for raising it. The Deputy has raised several areas: cataract services, orthopaedic services, spinal care and more. As I just said, our goal is universal healthcare. One of the pillars is affordability, which we just discussed, and another is rapid access. A huge amount of what we have been doing over the past four to five years is to speed up access to care. We have a ways to go. We are probably four years into an eight-year progr…

I agree with a lot of that. To be clear, it is not the case that we are telling people things will get better in the future. I am saying clearly that our healthcare professionals have made remarkable progress already. For example, with regard to cataract services, when this Government came in, the average waiting time for cataract treatment in Dublin, in the Deputy’s constituency and in mid-Leinster, was six years. It is now less than 12 months and falling fast. Children who were referred to an eye specialist in Du…

First, I absolutely do not have an issue with using private care as a short-term means to get public patients faster care. We have used the NTPF as part of our waiting list action plan for the past four years and it has been highly effective in getting public patients care. While we should be building a public health service which does not rely on private care, I have no issue with using private care for anyone who needs care urgently. This same applies to children’s spinal services. The Deputy will be aware I was …

I thank the Deputy for his ongoing advocacy and work in this area. The budget contained very good news for progress in this area. I have allocated full-year funding of €50 million for these negotiations. There would be €25 million available next year on an assumed commencement date of, let us say, July 2025. There is, however, full-year allocation of €50 million. The ask from the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU, is a lot bigger than that, obviously. It will seek more money, as happens in negotiations but €50 million is a…

It would not be helpful to set out the State’s negotiating position. What I have said to the IPU and my officials is that everything is on the table. The Government has put €50 million on the table this week, which is a sizeable amount. Of course, the IPU will say it is not enough and will want more. It is a sizeable amount, however. Everything can be discussed in the round negotiations. The IPU can discuss the fees that are currently paid and anything else. Irrespective of the negotiation on fees, which will happe…

As the Deputy said, pharmacists are highly trusted and skilled. They did an incredible job during the Covid pandemic. There was resistance to expanding their scope and that is why it has not happened in a very long time. I do not subscribe to this thinking. Expansion will make a big difference to ordinary punters in the community in that they will not have to go to a GP with minor ailments, such as eye conditions and rashes. Rather, they will be able to get certain prescriptions from pharmacists and have them exten…

I thank the Deputy for his powerful and relentless advocacy of healthcare services for the people in his constituency, including Youghal. He has raised the ambulance training college with me probably every week over the past few years. I am delighted to be able to confirm in the Dáil today that the St. Raphael's site in Youghal is the preferred location for the permanent ambulance training college. That will be very welcome news to the people in Youghal. The facility will be wonderful for our National Ambulance Ser…