Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy has specific information, I ask him to bring it to me as well. If there is any specific information, I would like to know about it. I will ask the question but I certainly have no information on it.

GP training is one of the more challenging areas. I know it is a priority project for the Chairman and for me as it is vital to ensure we have a sustainable health service delivered to communities. The key to making general practice sustainable is a new GP contract and engagement on that will start this year. That contract must be meaningful for GPs and the delivery of primary care. There is a body of work ongoing to ascertain what we want as a State and what we need from a new GP contract as people have been talking for decades about moving things into the community. Although there has been some movement, substantial parts of the process have not come about.

As the Deputy will know from his involvement with the previous Government, we have seen an increase from July this year in the number of GP training places, and we are now training 172 per year, an increase from 157. In 2010 we were training 119 GPs per year, so it is an increase. The Chairman would be much more knowledgeable about this than me, but particularly in rural communities and areas of urban deprivation, there are business sustainability issues, if I can put it that bluntly, for GPs. These are places where there is a need for a GP but there may not be a possible business case for a GP to justify establishing what will effectively be his or her own business. That is why I have made it clear in the context of the GP contract negotiations that we might consider the option of salary for GPs. If the State recognises the need for a GP in an area but there is none there, we could make an intervention and offer a salary. I have spoken to younger GPs who want a work-life balance. One should not have to be a wonderful business person to be a wonderful clinician or vice versa. If there is an opportunity for a possible role, we could explore that in the context of the negotiations.