Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses have studies done on that. Last week or the week before, we asked the service provider, the HSE, about the IT system and electronic communication. We were told a certain portion of the new funding of €35 million would be for what was referred to as service improvement - I use the term "to plug holes" - and we still have no figures around that. Now I hear even something as simple as email addresses, a technology that is roughly 20 years old, is not set up for members of staff. What is coming back at us repeatedly is IT systems and IT. We have a huge hangover from PPARS here. There seems to be a fear of tackling the IT issue within the health service, perhaps because of what happened in PPARS long before my time here. We need to get the figures from the HSE on the areas of IT that it is concentrating on with the new funding that it cannot spend in that period. We are told that the HSE uses a priority rota every year but we cannot see what that priority is. Now we hear that we have no email addresses for staff in areas of primary care.

My final question relates to FEMPI. Dr. O'Brien mentioned that FEMPI has destabilised general practice, particularly rural practices. Is FEMPI the only reason the sector is experiencing shortages? If the FEMPI measures were reversed in the morning, would there be a significant increase in the number of people trying to take up the profession? If not, what are the other factors that may be affecting this as well?