Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, a revolutionary report commissioned by the Clare Public Participation Network towards an anti-poverty strategy for Clare was commended by this House and by the Minister, standing where the Tánaiste is now. Among many other findings was one that as of July 2022, there were 52 GPs in Clare who were part of the General Medical Services scheme. As this works out at roughly four GPs per 10,000 of population, Clare is 25 GPs below the national average. The programme for Government committed to strengthening general practice and emphasised sustaining rural practice. In this respect, why did the Government not increase the allowance and modify the allowance of the rural practice support framework in its budget? What will it do instead to encourage rural general practice? While I welcome the strides made this week on GP visit cards, they are meaningless if they cannot be used in many parts of rural Ireland.

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