Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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75. To ask the Minister for Health the type of measures he is considering to help support the provision of general practitioner services in rural areas, given the global pressures on the recruitment and training of health care staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3888/16]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Government is committed to ensuring that patients throughout the country continue to have access to GP Services, especially in remote rural areas and also in certain disadvantaged urban areas, and that general practice is sustainable in such areas into the future.

Rural practice is top of the agenda as part of the discussions for the new GP contract currently underway between the Department of Health, the HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation. Options, including enhanced rural practice payments, are being considered by all parties to support and sustain rural practices. As proposals are being considered by the parties as part of ongoing discussions about the GP contract, I am not in a position to comment on the outcome at this stage.