Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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355. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of increasing the general practitioner rural practice allowance to €25,000. [38796/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Regulations were signed on 5 May 2016 which provide for the introduction of the new Rural Practice Support Framework (RPSF), which includes improved qualifying criteria for rural support and an increase in the financial allowance from €16,216.07 to €20,000 per annum.

Under this Framework, if two practice units are providing general practitioner services in the same qualifying area, both practices may qualify for a modified allowance of €10,000. GPs holding a permanent GMS contract who received the Rural Practice Allowance of €16,216.07 immediately prior to the introduction of the new Regulations who do not meet the new qualifying criteria continue to receive the payment on a personal basis, provided they retain their contractual commitment to the remote rural area.

As at 1 July 2018, there are 257 practice units in receipt of rural supports under the RPSF. 179 practices receive the full financial allowance of €20,000 and 22 practices receive the modified allowance of €10,000.

The estimated full year cost of increasing the existing allowance to €25,000, and the corresponding modified allowance to half of this amount, based on the current number of GPs qualifying for allowances under the RPSF, is approximately €950,000. Any increase in the financial allowance under the new RPSF would only apply to those practices that qualify under the new criteria, therefore these costings have excluded the 56 GPs who currently receive the old financial allowance of €16,216.07.