Dr. John O'Brien:

I will begin with the Deputy's reference to 12 women a day. What I take this to mean is that with 5,000 people travelling to the UK currently, that works out mathematically as 12 people daily. That probably underestimates the number of women who are requiring abortion. My understanding is that it is somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000. In any case, the Deputy's point was that this does not represent an extra burden on practices as these women are already patients of the practice and this service can be fitted in. The nature of the work that will be involved in this will be time consuming. It is unlikely that it will fit in to the normal process of a standard GP consultation.

The work is likely to cluster. It is not likely to be dispersed equally across all GPs. Some 46% of GPs are female. I am a male doctor of a certain vintage and when I was a young doctor, I was involved in women's health. As the years have rolled on, I have seen less of it and almost no women's health issues have come under my remit in recent years.

With regard to the distribution of part-time work, many newer graduates work part-time hours. This is skewed a bit more towards female GPs who are graduating. It will not be a question of just 12 a day and it will not be evenly distributed across practices. As we discussed, there is the matter of provision of GPs. There are plenty of GPs in more affluent areas of Dublin and fewer GPs in poorer areas. That competes with all the other unmet need in those areas. It is not true to say it is just a little more work and to ask why we do not just slip it in. I do not think that will work.