Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree that it is being done very slowly in the unwinding of this. I believe it is being done in quite an equitable way, favouring lower-paid public workers and people who have contracts with the State first. We are not just returning the money that was taken through the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009, FEMPI, which was taken by many Governments, 75% of which was taken by Fianna Fáil when in government. We are returning an extra €80 million on top of that which is paying handsomely for new services to be provided in chronic disease management. We are phasing that in, starting with over 70 year olds people with a medical card in the new year, rather than bringing everybody in in one go. This recognises the need to allow our GPs to see the benefit of additional investment before a significant extra workload.

Salaried GPs are now in place in Ireland. I accept there is a need to ramp it up. There is no need for any legislative change to make that a reality. The HSE already has those powers and is already funding a number of salaried GP practices. I share the Deputy's point that could be a lot more. The HSE already knows that it has a clear mandate in that regard as well.

On the out-of-hours services, GPs are contracted under the general medical services scheme and must make suitable arrangements to enable contact to be made with them or with a locum for emergencies outside of normal practice hours. As part of their regular obligations our GPs are contracted provide all-hours access for General Medical Services, GMS patients. The HSE supports the provision of these services with infrastructure, call-handling, recruiting nurse staff and currently over 90% of our population has access to out-of-hours GP service. The HSE and the Department of Health were made aware during the summer of this year of a particular difficulty being experienced by some co-operatives in recruiting GPs from abroad to provide services as a result of the terms of the atypical working scheme visa. The Deputy may have seen the announcement by my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, and myself on that in recent days.

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