James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am more than happy to oblige. Deputy Kelleher asked me when the transfer of the Vote will take place. The legislation has been published and it will take place on 1 January 2015. He mentioned the response times of ambulances and pre-hospital emergency care.

The national ambulance service provides pre-hospital emergency care and non-emergency patient transport. It has approximately 1,550 staff, more than 480 vehicles and a budget of €138.5 million. Committee members know from our previous meetings that we have reformed the system so that there is one centre over two locations for ambulance calls, getting rid of all the duplication, and we have brought in a range of intermediate ambulances for inter-hospital transfers, freeing up other ambulances from that work. In essence, we have made more ambulances available for acute emergencies and we have introduced the emergency response vehicle with emergency responders. This is to ensure the patient gets access to treatment as quickly as possible. These are highly trained paramedics who do an amazing job in saving lives.

Committee members were concerned about GPs and their patients. In an OECD report, of the countries that responded in 2011 Ireland's GPs were the fourth highest paid. In 2009, they were the highest paid. GPs do a great job and can meet most patients' needs. Just like the rest of the health service, the model of care needs to change. There is much work that GPs are currently doing that practice nurses could be doing. I would like to see two practice nurses per GP. They will have a major role in the future when we have chronic illness care based in the community. They will monitor that and will also be able to screen patients who come to see the GP, many of whom may not need to see the GP, leaving the more difficult clinical conundrums for the GP to deal with. The Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, will meet with the Irish College of General Practitioners, the IMO and the National Association of General Practitioners on Friday and they will start the consultation programme.

With regard to free GP care for those under six years old, any GPs worth their salt know the value of children to the practice and continuity of care. I cannot see them refusing these patients. They have no reason to refuse them because the pay on offer is what is currently available. As I have often said, research reveals that 1,000 GMS patients are worth €250,000 to a GP when we consider the ancillary benefits, including study leave, holiday pay, nursing grants and secretarial grants. At €50 per visit, 1,000 private patients amount to €125,000, as the statistics show private patients only visit 2.5 times a year. We all accept that many GPs do not charge the full price for return visits and do not charge the full price for two children coming at the same time. The income from the private sector is considerably lower, so it is very attractive from the point of view of GPs.