Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully acknowledge that, particularly around Castletownbere and other areas, it is a great worry for parents or anybody else that getting to a GP could involve a long and difficult drive at night. That is not something we want to see. There are several things we are doing which will take time but will make a big difference. For example, we are trebling the number of GPs in training. That will take time to deliver the number of GPs we need but it will result in a substantial increase in GP numbers.

What can we do in the meantime, over the next one to four years? We are working with the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, on international recruitment. For example, it has a project to bring in GPs from South Africa and other countries and it is targeting, in particular, rural areas such as Castletownbere and many other areas in Deputy Cairns's constituency. We can do more, including bringing together a forum and seeing what else can be done through the upcoming strategic review.

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