I am thankful for the opportunity to speak this evening. Before I start, I want to reflect on how far we have come as a nation in the last 25 years in relation to health. Our budget in 2000 was €5.6 billion and this year it is €27.4 billion, which is a fivefold increase. We see improved individual outcomes, economic growth with a healthier and more productive workforce, increased life expectancy and greater equity and social well-being across the population. However, multidisciplinary primary care was first discussed here as a concept in the 1980s. The first strategic plan, Primary Care: A New Direction, was introduced in 2001. We saw our first primary care centre nine years later in Mallow, and since then we have seen over 180 new primary care centres delivered nationwide. I firmly believe it is an infrastructural development area that is not recognised half enough when it comes to the delivery we have seen in the area, with many more in the development pipeline. In my county we have seen Tullamore up and running. We officially opened Banagher Primary Care Centre with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill last year. Birr is nearing completion and I recently visited it. Edenderry is at the planning application stage and I hope, once we get approval on that, the HSE will prioritise it for development. We have the bricks and mortar and now it is a matter of ensuring adequate human resources capacity. I acknowledge Dr. Velma Harkins in relation to the introduction of the international medical graduate rural GP programme, which has made a material difference in relation to providing GPs in rural areas. We heard from many in opposition in this Chamber about how we were never going to see a GP again and services were lost. This has taken the pressure off but we need more. There are problems which remain and I hear about them regularly from my constituents. Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists and chronic disease supports are seriously lacking. There are a number of vacancies in these roles that need to be filled as a matter of priority in my area. There are long waiting times and waits for assessment and intervention. People are literally waiting for years, so I ask the Government to prioritise this, working with the HSE. Elective surgery is a growing problem and the statistics speak for themselves. Midland Regional Hospital, under the stewardship of Louisea Burke, has proven itself to perform at every level, and there are plans for further development of dialysis, an oncology day ward and an extension to the existing emergency department. It proudly boasts one of the lowest emergency department trolley numbers in the country. I visited recently and saw this at first hand. The urgent need for an emergency department is backed by the fact that, in 2025 versus 2024, there was a 3% increase in ED attendees, with 9% of those being over 75 and 11% over 90. This is a bed capacity challenge which brings a significant increase in surge requirements and that is impacting on elective surgery. We have seen insufficient protection of elective beds, underutilised theatres due to staffing and schedule constraints, high cancellation rates because of emergency demand, and elective surgery constantly crowded out, not because the need is not there but because emergency takes priority. We have seen increases as high as 48% and 27% in inpatient and day cases, respectively, as well as in endoscopy year on year. This is something that needs to be addressed by the Government as a matter of priority.

Sentiment score: 0.17

I appreciate the Minister of State's response but the options that will be given to patients in the midlands are in every geographical location around the country except the midlands and that is exactly what needs to change. Sláintecare commits to reducing waiting times, bringing care closer to home and regional delivery. We want to see all three delivered in the midlands. On a basic human level, behind every waiting list number is a person living in pain, struggling to work or watching their quality of life deteriorate. If you are living in the midlands or in Offaly you are expected to commute or get a train in order to avail of those services, and that is simply not acceptable in 2026. In 2018, A Trauma System for Ireland: Report of the Trauma Steering Group recognised Tullamore for its 24-7 emergency department with trauma, orthopaedic and general surgery on call. That is a strategically important location. As recently as July 2024, a report commissioned by the HSE exploring the options for increasing hospital capacities in the midlands identified the need. Yet, in the response this evening, there is no recognition of that. We are seeing population growth. We need to future-proof for it. It took 30 years to deliver the concept of primary care centres. The midlands and Offaly cannot wait 30 years for elective capacity to be brought there. We need to move away from a model under which we are expected to go to Dublin or Galway. We want that capacity to be brought to the midlands and to take the pressure off the other areas. I propose that the Government look strongly now at forming some kind of dedicated stakeholder task force to work on the issue as a matter of urgency to ensure patients in the midlands who want and need elective surgery can get it in the midlands, and do so as a matter of urgency.

Sentiment score: 0.02