Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The bottom line, however, is that there is a major problem in general practitioner practices, particularly in rural areas. There will now be a major problem in areas of socioeconomic deprivation. If the Minister is saying this is not happening, I fear we are facing a greater difficulty than I imagined. The one argument on which we can all agree is that primary care represents the best way to deliver health care in communities throughout the country. It is a question of keeping people out of the acute hospital setting by delivering health care in general practitioners' practices throughout the country. This is a principle of the primary care strategy published in 2001. It has been a principle that all political parties and stakeholders have bought into. The unfortunate problem is that we are starving general practitioners' practices and primary care teams of the resources they need to ensure people can be treated in the least complex way. It is not just a question of general practitioners' practices.

See this speech in context