Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy quite rightly said, the ambition is very serious. The ambition is ultimately for free GP access to be the norm in our country, not just for children. That is where we have to go and we have to get there quickly. To do that, there has to be massive investment in general practice, including in the numbers, as we have discussed, and in the supports around them, such as eHealth, where there are some good initiatives but which is not rolling out quickly enough. The GMS contract will have to change. It will not work for the level of ambition of what we have in mind and, as we know, it does not work in some parts of the country anyway. In many parts of the country, some people are struggling to get onto a GMS list and that is not acceptable.

The Deputy said he would set up a working group this year. We are doing that. It was promised under the 2019 agreement. For reasons we can all accept, it was not possible over 2020 and 2021, but we are doing that this year. It is important to me that the starting point will be to listen to GPs very carefully and hear what they need to develop general practice.

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