Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a panel of 830 patients. Unfortunately, this is relatively small from the point of view of a GP. Unless it is heavily supplemented by private patients and private incomes, it can be hard to operate a practice on that basis. The panel may be small from the point of view of an applicant GP. The service is, of course, very important to the community itself.

The rural practice allowance has rules applying to it. There are also contracts agreed with the IMO. It is not open to me to change the rules or bend them on an ad hocbasis for the benefit of any individual GP or community. When trying to fill a rural list, which is a difficulty in some parts of the country, we are up against the fact that an increasing number of GPs do not want to work in single-handed practices. They want to work in groups, as part of multidisciplinary teams and in primary care centres, because that is what they were trained to do. That is why this will be an ongoing problem. Even if allowances were higher and there were additional financial incentives, young GPs coming through the training system would want to work in group practices with sub-specialties and so on. This presents a difficulty.

With regard to the options, they always include the possibility of bringing in a locum and re-advertising the position, if needs be. Dividing the list would only be done as a last resort. I agree that it would not be desirable. I certainly hope the interviews on 4 March will be successful.

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