Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The other point I want to make, which has already been referred to, relates to retiring GPs. It has been known for some time that these GPs are going to retire. My criticism in the past has been that, even though it was known they were going to retire, had to retire or preferred to retire, whatever the case may be, and were entitled to retire, no provision was made for a seamless handover or to encourage new people into the system in such a way as to ensure the general public could be reassured that adequate provision was being made.

The other point I am concerned about is this: several members have said it is very difficult to meet a GP, for all the reasons we talked about. I have said this before. I believe we are becoming the country of waiting lists. People have to get on a waiting list for almost everything. That should not be the case. We need to get the forward planning right. I am agreeing with Dr. Farrell there. We need to accelerate it. It is not enough to say it; we need to put it into operation in every case and in every health area. We need to do that and we need to do it quickly. The ground-level demand has to manifest itself straight away. We need the ministerial response, or the HSE response, or whatever is required to happen next, to quickly follow and put it into operation. A quick turnaround is what is needed.