Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Health if he will consider allocating a general practitioner training programme to County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27831/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to the continued development of General Practitioner capacity and to ensuring that patients across the country continue to have access to GP services. The annual number of training places available has been increased from 120 in 2009 to an expected intake of 171 in 2017. The Government is committed to further increasing this number in future years.

The HSE works alongside the Irish College of General Practitioners in actively recruiting and training GP trainees. At present, GP training is delivered by 14 separate GP training programmes throughout the country. While Co. Kildare does not have its own dedicated GP training programme, there are several GP trainees based with 18 GP trainers in Co. Kildare. These trainees are principally aligned to the Midlands and Trinity training programmes. There are no plans to introduce a new training programme for County Kildare.