Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I suppose the Deputy is more conscious, in particular in the part of the country from which he comes, that there is a difficulty in terms of GPs and getting permanent posts. We need to continue to incentivise GPs to operate in areas in which one would not have a big customer base. That is something on which we are working. The workforce planning project being undertaken will ensure that whatever steps are necessary in order to ensure that we have cover throughout the country will be put in place. It is not as if we have not sought, within the system itself, GPs who may be able to spilt up the GMS panel and operate it among themselves, which is often the answer because it gives an increased customer base and increased revenue to a practice. There is, however, a difficulty in regard to particular areas of the country and we are very aware of that.

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