I thank my colleague Deputy Rice for bringing this motion forward. It is a really important motion and is core to the Social Democrats. Why we are here and what we are about is ensuring that people have access to universal public healthcare as a human right and as a public service, regardless of where they are from and regardless of their income, that they have access to that most basic and fundamental need. Is ceart daonna í an tsláinte. Ba chóir go mbeadh rochtain ar sheirbhísí ardchaighdeáin phoiblí, an tsláinte san áireamh, ag gach duine. Caithfidh an iomarca daoine íoc go príobháideach as cóireáil, áfach. Unfortunately, too many people have to pay to access healthcare in this country. In my constituency, in areas like Ballymun and Finglas, which are some of the most deprived areas in the country, they do not have access to GP care, in particular in the area of Finglas west and south, which, as I said, has some of the highest levels of deprivation and poverty in this State, with a population of upwards of 20,000 and not one GP. GP Care For All has been trying to set up there. We are still waiting on support from the HSE and the Minister on that, and I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, will come back on that. In other parts of the constituency, in Whitehall and Beaumont, we have an ageing population with complex care needs and, again, inadequate access to GP care. The workload for GPs is higher in disadvantaged communities, with patients presenting with more complex needs and developing chronic diseases much younger, yet our public health system does not reflect that. We need the changes put forward today in that regard. In 2019, the them Minister for Health, Simon Harris, committed to extend free GP care to children under 12. "We are extending free GP care to children under 12 years but on a phased and careful basis," he said. That was seven years ago. There is still no sign of it. Most people's understanding of a phased introduction is a year or two, not seven years. Contrast that with the way in which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have rammed through billions in VAT cuts to developers overnight. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not wait around to remove rent controls, which will push thousands of renters into poverty, but when it comes to delivering public healthcare that would give real help to working families, they delay year after year. I will give a sense of that cost of GP care for families. I have a six-, a ten- and a 12-year-old. Before Christmas, my ten-year-old son had bad asthma. We had to go to the doctor a few times. My 12-year-old got a virus around the same time. Between doctors' visits, prescriptions, the multiple bottles of Calpol and Nurofen that parents know well, it cost me upwards of €350 within two weeks. Most families cannot afford that. We need genuine public, affordable healthcare.

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