Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A big part of Sláintecare and the Government's health strategy is about investing in primary care to keep people out of hospitals in the first place, as the Deputy will be well aware. That is why we have invested tens of millions of euro in primary care facilities throughout the country in many of the towns, cities and constituencies represented in this House. As announced in this week's Budget Statement, 100,000 more people will qualify for free GP care due to the changes we are making in qualifying thresholds. This is intended to make life easier for families to help with health costs which we have also done by reducing the cost of medicines. This is also in line with Sláintecare.

Separately in budget 2019, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, secured significant funds to invest in general practice. We recognise that GPs need to be supported in a sustainable manner to deliver the increased services we are asking them to deliver. We also want to deliver on the Sláintecare reforms to move more care into the community, which is better for everybody. We need to ensure general practice is ready and able to do that and we are investing in that. We have a significant multi-annual investment to make, which is worth many millions of euro. Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, officials were in the Department of Health yesterday and I expect to see progress soon on a process the Government and the Minister for Health are eager to see delivering an agreement as quickly as possible. We are about trying to reverse cuts of recent years; we are doing it across all sectors.

My note tells me the Sinn Féin budgetary position did not even provide for the development of a new GP contract.

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