Dr. Laura Noonan:

I go back to one of Deputy Hildegarde Naughton's question, which is quite important and which I am afraid might get skimmed over. We are talking about retention of GPs in rural areas and everywhere else. I represent new and establishing GPs within the College of General Practitioners. I am a new and establishing GP myself. I graduated from my GP training scheme approximately four years ago and I have been representing establishing GPs for the last 12 months. As a group, we need to look at the challenges facing new GPs. Why are they leaving and, if they leave, are they likely to come back? To answer that, we must look further at the actual manpower crisis facing general practice and at the few statistics we know about. We know, for example, that 33% of GPs are over 55 years of age. That is not encouraging. We know that the statistic is even worse in some areas. In Mayo, for example, 52% of GPs are over 55 years of age and 28% of GPs in Clare are over 60 years old. We are looking at a looming crisis. It is on the way and we cannot avoid it. We are training new GPs to the highest standard. The GP training schemes in this country are training the best quality GPs they have ever managed to train. They are trained clinically and trained to manage practices. They are entrepreneurs, business people and excellent clinicians. Patients in Ireland need our trainees to stay here and look after them. We are saying that we face a tide of multi-morbidities and co-morbidities. Patients are getting older, frailer and more difficult to look after and yet we are letting the people trained to look after them simply leave.