Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I will ask my colleagues to come in on some of the questions because they are more appropriate to them, particularly the point the Chairman made on panels.

On GP vacancies, I agree with the Chairman. We need to listen to him on that in terms of his professional experience but also his knowledge in terms of what is happening on the ground in rural parts of Ireland. We may or may not agree on this but I am clear as to what we need to do about increasing the pipeline in terms of new GPs and trying to keep them in Ireland. I accept that we need to do more in terms of the contract but as I said earlier, there is an immediacy now in some communities. We are already seeing on an ad hocbasis communities stepping up after the crisis emerges, meeting with the HSE and asking how this can be fixed. We are seeing good examples of some of the collaboration taking place. I saw it in Kerry recently where the community and the HSE locally are working together but only after the vacancy arises. One of the points the Chairman is making is that there should be greater community involvement at a much earlier stage. We know that, say, Dr. X is due to retire so we should start that process earlier.

The Chairman's comment on the marking scheme is fair. There might be an issue in terms of a GP choosing their successor, which is not what he is suggesting, but we need to get the balance right. I ask that the HSE witnesses would reflect on what the Chairman has said and revert to him on it. As an issue arises, I believe the HSE is doing a very good job of engaging with the community but can we plan better further out?