Ms Celeste O'Callaghan:

A few different matters were raised by the Deputy so I will call on Mr. Noonan to speak about GP services and Mr. Judge and Dr. Kavanagh will speak to the DTSS review. The Deputy asked about the timing of legislation for providing medical cards to people with a terminal illness. The administrative scheme has been put in place for an initial 12 months to allow time for the legislation to be developed. We want to do a fairly robust analysis at the policy end as we develop the heads because it is a tricky area. We do not anticipate producing the heads before the summer but we anticipate having them for the autumn session. I suppose the period to allow this to pass through the Oireachtas depends on other factors, including the overall legislative schedule.