Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They are making a very important impact. Without pre-judging the outcome of the negotiations on the GP contract, an obvious point for discussion is the determination of what constitutes an out-of-hours service and a normal operating hours service. We can see clearly that there is a demand for the former. Given people's lifestyles, in terms of work and so forth, we need to determine what is best in terms of accessible hours for GP surgeries and figure out what the Department and the Government need to do to enable these hours to be operated. The output target last year was 964,770 hours, while the target this year is 1,550,388 hours. As the target in 2016 was exceeded significantly, there is clearly a massive demand for the service.

Another issue that arises in terms of the sustainability of the service in certain parts of the country is the ageing GP population, of which the Chairman is aware in the case of Shannondoc which operates in his part of the country. Interestingly, when I attended the OECD Health Ministers meeting, I discovered that while we had an ageing GP population here, we actually compared quite well to other European countries. However, that is not a reason not to prepare. We have a lot of GPs who are making retirement plans and need to replace them. I still believe, although not everyone agrees with me, that if we do not move towards the option of having salaried GPs in rural areas and areas of urban deprivation, there will continue to be an unmet need. I have an open mind on how that should be done, but it may mean the HSE directly employing GPs or grant-aiding GP surgeries, as it does already in organisations such as SafetyNet. I am absolutely adamant that this should form part of the discussions on the GP contract because the sustainability question goes to the very core of the issue.