Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask Ms Magahy to come in on the matter of workforce planning in a moment. On the overspend, as my colleague, the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure said, possibly at a Committee on Budgetary Oversight meeting last week, he and I are actively engaging in addressing what will be a requirement for supplementary funding for the health service this year. I am very confident that we can reach agreement on that. That issue will crystalise and I expect that it would be resolved in the next few days.

I would need to come back for a separate session on overspend versus value for money because I could use almost my seven minutes on that. There is a need for accountability on the resources that are given and a need to ensure that we have an adequate budget each and every year within the resources available.

On GPs, as I said in my opening statement, in recent days I reached an agreement with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform which gives me a mandate to engage with GPs on a multi-annual investment programme. It is a very substantial programme, both as the subject of negotiations and the budget, so I cannot be more specific. That said, I genuinely expect very intensive engagement in coming weeks with GPs and I expect to be in a position to be able to increase significantly the investment in general practice starting next year, subject to agreement.

The Deputy, to be fair to her, regularly raises the issue of the staffing of primary care centres. I will see if we can get the Deputy some specific information on this. When I open primary care centres, I am regularly told about the additional staff working there and the additional specialties being undertaken. I will try to get Deputy O'Reilly a note and will be happy to come back and debate that with her.