Dr. John Farrell:

At the moment, according to HSE figures, approximately 30 communities around the country are without GP services or GP services are being provided by locums at huge cost. We need to encourage more people to practice in rural Ireland. That will need incentivisation. From an educational point of view, we are looking to establish a faculty of rural practice to encourage more people to practice in rural Ireland. This is badly needed. Rural and inner city general practice are the areas that have been, statistically, under-resourced.