Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 135: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the projected number of additional general practitioners which her Department estimates will be needed in each of the next five years, both nationally and in Dublin; the number of net new places for general practitioners created in the past year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11609/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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General practitioners, GPs, are private medical practitioners operating in their own right. The State contracts with GPs for the provision of services under a number of schemes, the most significant of which is the general medical services scheme, GMS. The State funds GPs' vocational training, which is conducted under the auspices of the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, with funding from the Health Service Executive, HSE.

In 2004 my Department agreed with the ICGP to fund an increase in the number of GP vocational training places from 84 to 150 over a three-year period, commencing in 2005. This was viewed as a short-term to medium-term measure in order to address immediate concerns in this area.

To date, an additional €4 million has been provided for the HSE to provide additional GP vocational training places. The HSE has indicated that due to capacity difficulties with the existing GP training programmes, of 22 additional posts funded in 2005, 17 were filled and, in 2006, 17 of a further 22 posts are expected to be filled. The HSE and the ICGP are jointly working on a plan to bring a total of 66 training places on stream by 2008.

My Department is considering the most appropriate way in which to address the longer-term GP manpower and training needs, in the context of such factors as the projected growth of the population, the demographic profile of the GP workforce, the changing nature of general practice and primary care and future service requirements generally.