I thank the Social Democrats for this very worthwhile motion. I also thank the Government for the large amount of funding that was provided for services in Kerry, including an ambulance depot for Cahersiveen, which is much needed. People there struggled in the past to get an ambulance. University Hospital Kerry received quite a lot of money to increase beds and services there. I very much welcome a minor injury unit for Killarney, where the population sometimes doubles and trebles in the summertime. The mind boggles at the amount of money for its design - over €800,000. What will it cost before it is finished? Nevertheless, we want to get it finished and we need it very badly. The story about GPs in Kerry is no different from that across the rest of the country. Killarney’s population has increased and it is desperately hard for new families and others who come to the area to find a doctor to care for them. We need more doctors there. In rural areas, it is not possible to have GPs in the way we used to. They are not provided with enough funding to operate surgeries of their own, to have secretaries of their own or to have their own people running their practices. It is just not happening. The only chance that doctors get is to join an existing group of doctors, and that only happens in the very big urban areas, which means rural areas are left without a GP, especially at night-time. SouthDoc does great work, but Kerry is a massive area. Faraway places like Lauragh and Eskadawer, which is west of Lauragh and only a mile from Ardgroom, are 50 miles from Killarney. Invariably, people there cannot get a GP or a SouthDoc doctor cannot get to them, so all they can do is ring for an ambulance to be taken all the way to University Hospital Kerry, which is in Tralee. We need to see what can be done to bring the GPs nearer to the people, because people, including children, get sick at night. I remember on a Friday being told the story that my granddaughter had stopped breathing. The family failed to get a GP and an ambulance landed an hour and a half later. It was very worrying. The child is all right and grand now. It is very worrying for a first-time parent to see this happening and to have to wait for so long. These are the kinds of things we must avoid. If vulnerable people, especially the elderly, are so far from a doctor when something goes wrong, the only option I see for them is to be taken to the university hospital in Tralee. They may not need that. I am pleading with the Government to look into this because in the bad times when the country had very little, Kilgarvan had a doctor’s surgery. The doctor lived there. It was the same all over, including in Kenmare, Sneem, Lauragh and other such rural places. The GPs worked all hours, day and night, and did great work. We need them back again. The country had nothing at the time but it had doctors.

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