Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

In fairness to the Irish College of General Practitioners, it has done a huge amount of work as regards having more GPs trained and putting in place a programme for people who have worked abroad and now want to work in Ireland. It has a two year programme whereas for the normal training, people would have to produce evidence of having worked abroad.

One of the things we need to fast-track in a lot of areas, especially growing urban areas, is the provision of primary care centres so a whole range of services are available. One of the things that is happening with GPs is that they are specialising. Therefore, it is important that a primary care centre is in place to provide a whole range of services and it allows GPs to deliver a far more comprehensive service in an area. The Department should work further on and encourage the HSE to deal with the issue of delivery primary care centres in a timely manner.

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