Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No. We are progressing things this year but I cannot yet tell the Deputy when these things will happen, to the month. I am determined we move quickly on this. There is a lot of advantage to be had here, especially with GPs under so much pressure. I cannot give the Deputy an exact timeline because there are clinical governance issues that need to be worked through. There are training modules that have to be gone through as well. I am eager to have it in place as quickly as possible and some of it in place this year, but we have to get the clinical governance and the regulatory side of it right as well. Some of the changes we are proposing are things that have been talked about for many years but have not happened. One of the reasons they have not is because of the clinical governance, oversight and regulatory framework that has to be in place. There is a certain amount of complexity to it. The changes will happen as quickly as possible.

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