When the staggering waiting lists for primary care services for young people were first raised by my party leader, Deputy Holly Cairns, in July 2024, the then Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, suggested the crisis was confined to psychology and the Cork–Kerry area. I have looked into this in depth over the past year and it is clear that the crisis is across disciplines and affecting every health region. The longest waiting time for physiotherapy is in Laois–Offaly, at six and a half years. The longest for occupational therapy is in Louth–Meath, at nine years. The longest for psychology is in Dublin city and west, at an incredible 11 years. The longest for speech and language therapy is in Dublin north-west, at almost six years. These are not outliers because HSE senior management is actually removing outliers from parliamentary question responses. Despite the chronic under-resourcing of primary care services by successive Governments, the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, states the solution is about a single point of access and not staffing thresholds. I support a single point of access but we have to staff services. Thousands of families are being failed. When are we going to establish staffing benchmarks for primary care services based on population size in each health region? When is the Government going to undertake the necessary recruitment?

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