Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá faoi an sláinte na tíre agus an fhadbh nach bhfuil dóthani dochtúirí teaghlaigh don daonra. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Health to the House to discuss the chronic shortage and lack of GPs throughout the country. I have been contacted by a number of people from different parts of the country who have told me stories of people moving into towns and being told that no GP was capable of taking them on. They are all snowed under with work as things stand. I know of a family in County Monaghan who moved to Carrickmacross and of two who moved to Monaghan town. The families tramped around both towns trying to find a GP to take them on with no success. The question is where these people are meant to go and what happens if one of their children or if a parent gets sick. We cannot send them to accident and emergency departments as these are overcrowded as it is and we cannot send them to the doctor on call because that service is not set up properly for that purpose. Without a properly functioning primary care service, we are in serious trouble. Things have got to crisis point and it is time the Minister for Health came to the House to advise us and, indeed, the people of this country what he intends to do about the chronic shortage of GPs throughout the State.