Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is an agreement that the Government reached. That is all very well but as the Minister knows and as we on this side of the House have been saying for a long time, a new GP contract is needed.

We expect GPs to take on new work yet we are not providing the kind of supports necessary for them to do that including ancillary staff, to address the whole issue of chronic disease management.

The Minister talked about the increase in the number of people applying for GP training. That is great but how do we hold on to them? We know that GPs themselves have said this. New GPs want to be working as part of multidisciplinary teams and they want to be operating as doctors not as businesspeople. That means that accommodation must be provided for them.

The Minister promised salaried GPs in the programme for Government. These have not been seen yet. He also promised part-time contracts for many trained GPs, including women, in particular, who want to work for a certain period of their lives as part-time GPs. What is he doing about this? It is hard enough to provide cover during the day. The whole question of out-of-hours coverage is very fragmented because of the dire shortage. What is the Minister going to do about those commitments that he has given for a new contract, for salaried GPs and for part-time GPs?

See this speech in context