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

We need further elaboration on this issue. As the Minister of State said, only €37 million was identified as the figure that would be required to fund free access to GPs for children under six years of age. We now discover that the anticipated cost for the year will be approximately €67 million. Is the Minister of State hoping or envisaging that only some GPs will take up the contract in an effort to find savings in the scheme? Clearly, the money will have to be found somewhere because it was not identified in the original Estimates. There must either be a Supplementary Estimate, savings accruing in some other area or there will not be a full drawdown of the full €67 million identified as the cost of the scheme over a 12 month period.

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