Dr. John Farrell:

Fifty-four percent of GPs are female while 46% are male. Of those aged under 45 in practice, 67% are female. We spoke earlier about whole-time equivalents, a point raised by Deputy Cullinane.

We currently have 4,250 people in practice, which equates to about 2,800 full-time equivalents. To get to the requested 6,000 doctors, that would be the equivalent of 4,000 full-time equivalents. It is not 6,000 full-time equivalents; it is 4,000 full time equivalents. I wish to clarify that point. The Deputy is quite right in asking do we have an answer to his question of how many graduates we need. The point about it is that the universities can provide only so many places. We have somewhere between 800 and 1,100 medical graduates every year. As Mr. Foy said, not all of those will choose a career in general practice. We are hoping to get at least a third of them, 350, attracted into general practice each year. The first two years after qualification are critical for retention. That is why we must make the posts attractive for people to stay. Rather than trying to attract them back, it would be much more economical and efficient to concentrate more on retention. We need to retain the people who are in.

I appreciate that there is a kind of rite of passage with people going away for 12 months or 24 months to sunnier climes after they qualify and after their internship. A significant percentage of those come back after a year or two; that is not the issue. We need to retain the people after graduation from a national training programme such as we are now providing. We need to encourage those people to stay in practice and the first two years are critical in that. That is why we need support for rural practice and inner-city practice. The key point is to ensure patients have high-quality, immediate general practice care to improve health outcomes.