Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister for Health will be aware, the GP sector is in crisis. GPs have faced repeated cuts, there is an almost complete breakdown in relationships between GPs and the HSE and there are massive recruitment and retention problems. According to some estimates, seven out of ten GP surgeries are no longer taking in new patients.

One of the keys to rebuilding the sector is a new GP contract. Sadly, one of the organisations that is key to this, the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP, which represents approximately 2,000 GPs around the country, has been left out in the cold. Despite repeated letters to the Minister, the Taoiseach and the assistant secretary in the Department of Health, the association has not been had any meaningful interaction and it has not been allowed to come to the table to join the negotiations the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, is engaged in. Why has the NAGP been left out in the cold in these critical negotiations? What is the Government's plan to bring the association inside in order that it can be part of negotiating a GP contract fit for the future?

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