Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her answer, but I am not overly happy with it. The reply I received from the HSE stated that Templemore is a rural setting and it was finding it impossible to get a replacement. This is a town that is on the Dublin-Cork railway line and only about five or six miles from the Dublin-Limerick motorway. It has a great educational infrastructure and would be an attractive place for any young GP to begin a practice.

This situation is replicated throughout rural Ireland. The HSE is failing to fill places in practices. The reimbursement of GPs in these areas has to be looked at. An incentive has to be put in place to make young GPs look at rural locations. As I said, Templemore is anything but in the rural hinterland. It is a town that is extremely accessible to every part of the country, with the transport infrastructure it has. When we see a town like this fail to get a GP, it shows why the HSE is failing in other parts of rural Ireland. The merger of GP practices is not working. When practices are merged in other towns in Tipperary, patients do not get the level of service they deserve and expect.

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