Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

It sounds a bit like "Groundhog Day". I have been raising this issue for the last year. I raised it in last March and April in relation to the Curlew Road, Armagh Road and Old County Road health centres. We were told that two teams were to be put into Armagh Road, or rather that there were 4.6 public health nurses between Armagh Road and Curlew Road and they were going to be put into the former centre. Two of them would be looking after the child developmental checks and two would be looking after elderly persons' care. We were advised at the time that one person would be retiring and another would be going on maternity leave, bringing the figure down to 2.6. They certainly have not been able to keep on top of the needs of the community. I raised it a couple of weeks ago with the Minister but I have had more people contacting me about their child not getting the developmental checks. People have been waiting for 24 months. One parent was told they would be lucky to get a four-year developmental check. There needs to be a serious approach to this. I was told recruitment was a problem last time and it is still a problem. Nothing seems to have been done in the meantime to deal with this urgent issue for children.

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