From listening to speakers across this House, there is clearly huge pressure on our national GP system. I acknowledge the extent of the work by Deputy Toole during the formation of the Government. The knowledge she has from her first-hand experience in healthcare is something we need to listen to. Whether it is our SNAs, teachers or any sector, the workers and the people who are on the ground know what is best. Too often, we see they are not being listened to. The clear solutions Deputy Toole has constantly raised in this House are admirable. I can definitely learn more and more. I am an engineer and do not know much about healthcare but she does. On the system, time and time again, we need to listen to those who are on the ground. I am constantly raising the issue of access to GP care in north Dublin for my constituents, who are not getting in the door as quickly as they would like. Patients are waiting way too long for appointments. I welcome the Department of Health's announcement yesterday of €26 million for north Dublin. We see accident and emergency at Beaumont Hospital finally progressing. I raised that with the Minister recently. It went to design phase in 2025-26 but it needs to go to tender and to market as soon as possible. People who cannot get their GPs are then forced to wait 14 hours in accident and emergency. It is really holding people back. I raised the recent case of Patricia Anderson, who I visited. Her husband went to accident and emergency, was there for 14 hours and, after that, was deterred from going back there. He was looking for a GP and was going into the system but, sadly, he has now passed away. The deterrent for him was the fact the wait in Beaumont's accident and emergency was too long. The announcement yesterday is welcome but we need to make it a reality, deliver it, get in there and do, with a Covid-level response, what the Government has done in the past. People in this House mentioned the ambulance service. I brought some of the members of the Marino branch of the Order of Malta into the Gallery on the previous occasion. They are hard-working men and women volunteering their time, and there is also the National Ambulance Service, who bring an emergency patient to accident and emergency. Until that patient is brought through the systems of the hospital, the ambulance team is waiting there and the ambulance is lying idle. In other countries, they have adopted a system where, while that team is admitting a patient, the ambulance can be used to go to another emergency. I would love that to be looked at. Early access to GPs prevents hospital admissions, as I mentioned, and reduces the pressure on accident and emergency departments, such as at Beaumont, but the continuity of care and personal touch of a GP improves the outcome for those with chronic illnesses. We are not opposing, and I welcome, the increase in GP training places and retention measures, but these incentives for practices are underserving a fast-growing industry. The expansion of access to general practitioners is one of the most effective reforms we can deliver as a Government. I urge the Government to, as I said, have a Covid-level response and bring this in now because the people of north Dublin and Ireland as a whole need this now.

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