Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe has said that Cappagh Hospital is “crying out” for investment.
The Dublin North-West TD was speaking in the Dáil on Thursday (February 12) after the Department of Health announced €10 billion in funding as part of the government’s overall plans to improve Ireland’s infrastructure.
Per McAuliffe, he said that some of the money could be spent to improve healthcare services for Finglas residents.
“The way we will judge the performance of the people we support in here will be on the delivery of projects, and the way we will be judged will be on the delivery of specific projects in each of our constituencies,” he said.
McAuliffe pointed to Beaumont Hospital, the Finglas primary care centre, Teach An Saol in Ballymun, and the redevelopment of the National Orthopaedic Hospital at Cappagh as projects that should receive a piece of the pie.
“We want to see clear timelines for those projects. As we have learned, being in the capital plan alone is not enough,” he said.
McAuliffe said, “anyone who has visited Cappagh Hospital will know that the old nightingale wards are awaiting replacement. There is a master plan that is crying out for investment. I would like to see more in the capital plan when it is published, which I believe may happen in the next number of weeks.”
He stated, “we want to see clear timelines and we need delivery. That is in every constituency across the country.”
Tánaiste Simon Harris said “alongside funding, the challenge now is going be making sure we cut through the red tape, bureaucracy, the bottlenecks, the gates, the stages, the external consultants and this, that and the other that have led us to a situation where big projects are taking far too long to deliver.”
“That is not consequence-free; it has a real impact in the Deputy’s constituency, in my constituency and in constituencies across the country.”
The Fine Gael leader said he was “committed” to working with McAuliffe to get the Teach An Saol project over the line.
McAuliffe said that there is a “desperate shortage of GPs in Finglas,” noting that, as a result of demographics, Finglas is “not as attractive as other areas where people might pay for private doctor visits.”
“It is often entirely reliant on medical cards; that is all the more reason why the HSE should provide a primary care centre.”