Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have already pointed out to the Deputy that the programme for Government sets out the steps that Government will take across all Departments to rectify the public finances, sort out the problems we inherited and get the country back to work. I am the first to admit that there are a number of items in the programme for Government that have proved not to be deliverable, but this is not one of them. The Government has not made any decision to go back on the commitment to provide free GP care for citizens - those with long-term illnesses and, ultimately, the entire cohort of the people.

What I am saying to the Deputy is that the Minister of State is a lawyer and that he could see from looking at the structure in place that this would cause complex legal problems. He decided against getting involved in that jungle, focusing on it for a couple of months and bringing forward a service for 56,000 people that would require a legal base and teams to assess eligible candidates for assistance with long-term illnesses based on medical grounds, rather than residency and income, in the knowledge that he would need to move beyond that sector to others. I support him fully in that regard. It is right to say I want to look at the entire structure, my options and proposals on how we can do this more effectively in the interests of the people.

I have no idea how things find their way into the media. Sometimes, as Members know, they are sent deliberately, while at other times, they are fed by different people. I do not have any great interest in it, except to tell the Deputy, as I told Deputy Micheál Martin, that most of the story I read this morning - I did read it - is accurate, but the piece that is missing is that the Government has not made any decision to reverse its commitment in the programme for Government to provide free GP care. I support the Minister of State very strongly in that regard. Based on his legal background and knowledge of where it could lead in terms of administrative complexity, he is right to say he wants to report back to the committee by the end of May with a far more effective proposition on how to implement this commitment. It is about people, but it is also about delivering an effective and cost-effective system of best patient care under the proposals made. That commitment stands and will be delivered on, but it will be delivered on by a Minister of State who could see legal quagmires in the structure in place and who wants to change it and make recommendations to make it better.

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