Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government was making the same case during the election and continues to make the case for employing GPs through the HSE. It does not matter where an idea comes from. Let us just do it.

Deputy McGuinness referenced barriers in his earlier intervention and I did not answer him.

To be fair, the Government has tried to place a particular focus on rural supports. The 2023 contract is an example. Practices in receipt of rural supports receive the maximum rate of practice staff subsidies in a significant effort to reduce staff costs for those who will establish their own practice. They also receive the maximum rate for locum supports for leave taking. On new GPs, the Deputy is right that when a retirement happens it is very disruptive. As I said, the GP training scheme increased by 80% from 2019 to 2024 with 350 new training places and 346 new entrants commencing training last year, an increase of 21% on the previous year's intake of 286. The very crude replacement rate is estimated at a rate of one to three GP graduates taken on board for every GP retirement and we have that particular focus on rural GP training.

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