Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is absolutely crucial that the discussions are finalised immediately. The Minister of State met 500 GPs outside the gates of Leinster House recently. They are fed up and are about to walk away. While the increase in training places mentioned by the Minister of State is welcome, the irony is that the places being provided are not being taken up. I would love to see the figures. In recent years, there have been vacancies in the west of Ireland training scheme for the first time. A career that used to be seen as a great one is no longer seen in that light. The Government needs to address the core issue of why general practice is not seen as an attractive profession. The Minister of State has spoken about the increased GP allowance, but it has not kept up with costs like insurance and equipment. It has not kept up with the demand on patients. It has not kept up with rural depopulation, which is affecting the ability of GPs to make a sufficient income from their existing lists. The allowance has to be changed. The Government needs to go back to the way things used to be done. It needs to provide surgeries and facilities on an ongoing basis so that people can locate in these areas. The financial model needs to be completely changed. Most of all, the Minister cannot allow the current situation, in which there are no respondents to GP vacancies when they are advertised, to continue. Surely that in itself is a wake-up call for the Government. It shows that there are problems with GP services. The Government needs to act to provide a better on-call service. Rural GPs need better backup for on-call. A range of issues are being put on the long finger while the flight from the profession continues.

See this speech in context