Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, fair enough, well then he should have had a response earlier than that. I have no issue saying that at all. I thank him for getting in touch with me on it.

Increasing the medical workforce is a top priority for me and for the Department. As Deputy Smith and I were just talking about, I want to see a doubling of healthcare college places. The 2018 capacity review in regard to GPs, referring to the question, showed that Ireland had broadly similar per capita levels to the countries benchmarked. However, rapid access to GPs in certain areas is a real challenge. There is no question. I hear this throughout the country. The number of doctors in training is increasing. This is one of the ways in which we are tackling this. There is an increase from 120 in training in 2009 up to 258. That has more than doubled to last year. Further increases are planned for this year. Critically, we are working with the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, on bringing international GPs into the country. In the Deputy's own county and constituency, there are issues. The ICGP is looking to bring in GPs including from South Africa but critically, support them in setting up in more rural areas. That is something that we fully support and want to see more of.

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