Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We would all have preferred it to have taken less time than it has and we are still not at the end of the process. GPs have until the end of May to decide and even at that point I would not be inclined to bring down the shutters. Given that it is a significant change to the way GPs deliver the service, it is important that we allow a reasonable, albeit not unlimited, time for them to sign up.

Sometimes politicians are too anxious to achieve something, but we are stopped in our tracks by a process in a different area. The intention is that the under-sixes will be covered by the end of June, if we manage to contain the timeframe we have set out. We have begun the process of negotiating the bigger contract with GPs which has been in place since the early 1970s and which needs to be updated, given that medical and primary care services have changed so significantly. As part of the process, we intend to roll out the service to all children in primary education, to approximately the age of 12 years, and then to children up to the age of 18.

I doubt that there will be any disagreement, although there might. The Deputy and I will agree that we are lagging way behind the rest of Europe in the delivery of primary care services and keeping people well and out of acute hospitals. This is the beginning and if we manage to implement the new system as smoothly as can be expected, although it has not been smooth up to this point, the rest of the process will happen more smoothly and within a shorter timeframe. I agree with the Deputy that it cannot go on forever.