Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that is very real and comes up quite a lot across the country. I will ask the Minister for Health to respond to her on her plans, if the Deputy wants to provide her with examples of some of the issues she referenced in her constituency.

We are very committed to increasing the number of training places for GPs. We have already begun that work and the trajectory will continue and accelerate. We have engaged with GPs on a number of occasions in recent years on their contract in order to make the services they are providing more viable. We are continuing with that work.

The Deputy referred to deprived or underresourced areas in terms of GPs. The HSE has the ability to hire salaried GPs in that case. There are some examples of that already in this city. We are keen to provide that more. There is often an inverse relationship between where the health need is most required and where the number of GPs are populated. I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to the Deputy with more information on that.

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