Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

The name of the programme in question was GP Care for All. Unfortunately, last year they had to come to the Dáil to campaign to be kept open. Clearly, that small proportion of GP services that follow the model we want, and that was agreed under Sláintecare, have to fight to stay open because the Government has not been supporting them sufficiently.

I will give the Tánaiste some statistics in response to those he provided. Six in ten GPs across the country cannot take on any new patients. They have closed their books. The measures the Government has brought in only scratch the surface and have not resulted in the changes we need to see in the number of GPs. Of those who took up the 350 new entrant positions the Tánaiste talked about, 30% will go to Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. They will emigrate and bring their skills with them. We will train them here and they will move overseas. Those are the facts. Our GPs are crying out for support. Our patients are crying out for medical assistance. Will the Tánaiste please take his head out of the sand and deal with this crisis before it becomes insurmountable?

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