Dr. Brendan O'Shea:

I will not repeat the excellent points that have been made by the Irish Medical Organisation. The points are both valid and extremely relevant. I have 47 seconds left in which to speak so I will say this - we need a contract that will actually ensure the recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of general practitioners and practice nurses. I would like to focus, in my final 30 seconds of speaking time, on practice nurses. The position of the practice nurse in the Irish primary care system is a major cause of concern. These nurses are paid a significantly lower rate than their hospital colleagues. They get no maternity or educational leave, no support and no pensions. That is Victorian. We understand that there are approximately 3,700 GPs and 1,700 practice nurses. We need to move rapidly towards having 5,000 GPs and 5,000 practice nurses. This brings us to an important metric - the number of GPs per 100,000 of population. In County Kildare, there are 41 GPs per 100,000 people. On average, there are 63 GPs per 100,000 people throughout the State. In Scotland, the figure is close to 90 per 100,000. We need a contract that would be sufficiently attractive. I put it to the members that practice nurses are very enfranchised - they have high levels of job satisfaction and their involvement is greatly appreciated. They will particularly contribute to the capacity we need to make a start on chronic disease management. We need the contract that will actually deliver this. I thank the committee for listening.