David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Farrell's opening statement sets out the challenges we have in this area, which are quite sobering. We all know people are waiting longer. As he said, the anecdotal evidence from people we deal with is that people are waiting longer to see a GP. A wait time of a day or three days for an appointment has become weeks in some areas, though not in all areas. It is becoming more common. Out-of-hours GP services are quite patchy and are non-existent in some areas. It is a challenge.

I will first touch on the figures because they are important to understand what capacity is needed. We need to understand the problem, the scale of the challenge and the solutions ahead of us. There are 2,807 GPs working in Ireland and 14% of those are aged over 65. Do the witnesses have any projection of how many of the 2,807 GPs it is anticipated will retire in the next five years?