Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Her requests are noted and will be transmitted to the Minister for Health and the HSE. I assure her that the Government remains committed to ensuring that patients throughout the country continue to receive adequate access to GP services and particularly to out-of-hours services.

We know we could do with more GPs. We all face that fact in our constituencies. The preliminary census numbers have been published and show an increase in our population to 5.1 million. That is another factor causing the pressure that our GP services are experiencing due to the increased numbers of people who are seeking access. The census data also tells us that people are living longer. The rate of births has exceeded the rate of deaths. People are living longer, thankfully, which is a credit to our health services. There are also a lot of migrants coming to the country. The Deputy has alluded to the migrant community within her own constituency. It is important that we continue to resource our GP services.

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has engaged with the universities to create more places in high-demand courses, including medicine. We need to produce more doctors. That is what we are doing at our level.

The Government is committed to improving the whole primary care setting. There is significant investment in primary care centres, as the Deputy will be aware. They are being built in all parts of the country, including in her constituency. As I alluded to earlier, the numbers of entrants into GP training went from 120 in 2009 to 233 in 2021. Some 238 places for GPs to train are available this year. We are doing a lot in that space that will go to help alleviate the problems. The Deputy's message will be conveyed to the Minister for Health.

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