Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this amendment. I tabled questions to the Minister some weeks ago, in the reply to which he indicated there would not be any change at all in this area. I welcome that he has now brought forward this amendment. As he said, it addresses only part of the problem, namely, those situations involving partners in a practice. There are many other situations, however, in which the intention is that GPs would be employees of the company or corporate body and certainly in the case of not-for-profit organisations that are attempting to provide GP services in severely disadvantaged urban areas. It makes absolute sense to order such arrangements on this kind of model. Unfortunately, because the issue of employees is not being addressed, there will be big challenges for practices like these at least until the strategic review is completed. We do not know when that will be. More than likely, it will be towards the end of next year, after which the necessary follow-on legislation will have to be enacted. It would have been better if the entire problem had been dealt with, but, insofar as it goes, I welcome the amendment.

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