Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I expect that we will, as part of the engagement on general practice, put together a roadmap to move to a post-FEMPI legislation era. I am glad that the Deputy mentioned other healthcare professionals because he is entirely correct. We have begun the process of unwinding the difficult FEMPI legislation pay cuts for all public servants, including other staff working in the health service, but, as the Deputy will also be aware, we did so as part of a process. I hear from GP organisations - I disagree with them - that one could reverse the FEMPI legislatin with the stroke of a pen, but that would not be fair to nurses, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, porters and everybody else who works in every other element of the health service. I want to move beyond the FEMPI legislation. I want to be able to pay GPs a fair fee for the services they are providing that reflects the better economic situation. I also want to spend a great deal more on general practice. We are training more GPs than we did in previous years. For example, in 2009 there were only 120 GP training places. This year it is expected that there will be 194, an increase of 60%. The challenge is to ensure that when those GPs come out of training they will want to stay here to work in general practice. We need a new contract to do this. We need to move to a post-FEMPI legislation era. I have the support of the Government, including the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach, to put real resources behind this move to a much better place.

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