'Not good enough' for new primary care centre to serve two Kildare towns

Combining Leixlip and Maynooth for primary care services, as planned by the Department of Health, “is not good enough”, a Fianna Fáil TD has stated.

A primary care centre, based in Leixlip, has been planned to serve Leixlip, Maynooth and surrounding areas.

Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil's contention is that a dedicated primary care centre is needed for the growing population of Maynooth, but the Department of Health has stated that no suitable site has been located for a centre in the town.

The Kildare North TD was addressing the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll McNeill in the Dáil recently, requesting an update on the proposed primary care centre in Maynooth.

He pointed out that the population of Maynooth stands at 17,000, on top of which there are 14,000 students, yet still Maynooth does not have a dedicated primary care centre.

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Responding to Deputy Ó Cearúil, the Minister stated that since 2015, several sites in Maynooth were explored, but “no suitable option” emerged.

As a result, she said, a larger primary care centre will be built in Leixlip to serve both the Maynooth and Leixlip populations and their surrounding areas.

The existing Maynooth health centre will serve as a satellite and complementary unit to the larger primary care centre in Leixlip, she added.

The Minister told Deputy Ó Cearúil that a “schedule of accommodation” is being finalised, with a view to the HSE tendering in the second quarter of 2025.

The Minister said: “I am aware that Maynooth continues to grow. It was the original intention to have that facility there. A number of issues have been thrown up in that infrastructure process that give me pause as Minister for Health as to how we well deliver better infrastructure around the country.”

Responding to the Minister, Deputy Ó Cearúil said he welcomed the news of a primary care centre in Leixlip, but that the idea of primary care was accessibility.

Deputy Ó Cearúil said: “I ask the Minister, as she stated, to continue the review. This goes back as far as 2015. It is now ten years on and no real progress has been made for a primary care centre for north-east Kildare.

“While it is positive that there will be a primary care centre in Leixlip, for a town the size of Maynooth - it is the same in south County Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Louth and Meath - there need to be primary care centres. It is not good enough that towns are combined for primary care.”

The Minister, agreeing with Deputy Ó Cearúil, reiterated that “the intention was to do this in Maynooth.”

Several site locations for the Maynooth area had been explored since 2015, she said, “but with no success.”

Deputy Ó Cearúil said: “There is a wider argument around planning, particularly how one arm of the State speaks to another. That is a wider question.”

He concluded: “I welcome that there will be a primary care centre in Leixlip. I will continue to work with the Minister to try to find an alternative site in Maynooth. I appreciate all the work she has been doing in increasing primary care throughout the country.”