James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I refer to north Cork since this came up so much during the local elections. People cannot get in the door to see GPs in Mitchelstown and Fermoy. This is replicated in other parts of the country. I am not even going near the SouthDoc issue but it is extraordinarily worrying that even when people require a consultation with a doctor in an emergency or a call-out to a home that the service is collapsing. It comes back to people ending up in the hospital system. It is having a significant impact on costs. I come from a family of healthcare professionals. All my siblings are working in healthcare settings.

I look at the primary care system as a positive development. As Mr. Gloster knows, I have been working hard to try to get the primary care centre up and running in east Cork. I think it was granted conditional planning by the county council this morning. I am also interested in the ambulance training unit that is being built in Youghal in the south of the country, as set out in the 2024 capital plan. What is the timeframe for the roll-out of new ambulance training colleges and funding being made available to progress them? We have done these successfully in other parts of the country. I think there is one in Ballinasloe in the midlands. How quickly is that being done?