One of the many impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic was the cancellation by public health nurses of the provision of developmental checks for newborn babies. This happened across the country and across Dublin and, since the ending of the emergency phase of the pandemic nine months ago, we have seen these steadily return.

One part of the capital, however, namely Leopardstown, Dublin 18, in the constituency the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and I represent, is still under-serviced in this area. In Leopardstown there are no developmental checks and the public health nurses are not making those visits. Instead, new parents have been told to go to their local GPs. The GPs are absolutely swamped. They do not have the capacity. Will the Government intervene to provide these new babies and their parents with the basic level of care needed in developmental checks?

I thank the Deputy for raising this. It is something I have heard about and am concerned about. The service public health nurses provide is essential. Calling to those homes and checking those babies can bring to light issues that need to be brought to light and make sure help is provided at an early stage. There may be a particular issue with staffing in one or two parts of the country. There is a difficulty recruiting public health nurses at the moment. We are definitely working on that. I will inform the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, that the matter was raised today and we will get back to Deputy Richmond with more details as soon as we can.