Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do acknowledge the difficulties that we are facing. There are currently 23 overall vacancies, six of which are in Cavan-Monaghan alone. Obviously, the HSE must put a lot of its effort into ensuring that those places are filled. I also recognise - and I believe the Department recognises - that the ratio of GPs to the population in the Senator's own area may be slightly lower. That is because of the difficulty in attracting GPs to rural areas. GPs are private practices. It is up to the individual to come to an area. Where it has not been successful, the HSE is obviously looking to bring people into those areas, but it is difficult. The changes to the retirement age, the opening up of access to the GMS panel, the changing of work hours for young mothers who may also want to raise families and the new rural contract linked in with the GP contract itself will hopefully start to see changes and encourage GPs to work in these areas in which they are not currently working.