Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As announced earlier this year, the Department of Health with the support of the HSE is to undertake a Strategic Review of General Practice. The Strategic Review has commenced and its work is on going. The review, with input from key stakeholders, will examine the broad range of issues affecting general practice and will set out the measures necessary to deliver a more sustainable general practice into the future. The current contractual arrangements for the GMS will be examined as part of the review.

The Terms of Reference for the review as well as information on the review's Steering Group, in accordance with the Transparency Code, is available from the Department's website. Following its completion, a report will be presented to me outlining the review's key findings and recommended actions.

While the collection of taxes and issues relating to the interpretation of tax law are a matter for the Revenue Commissioners, I am aware of the concerns around the new guidance on the tax treatment of GP's GMS income that has now been issued by the Revenue Commissions.

The guidelines illustrate how GPs’ GMS income should be treated for the purposes of tax under current tax law. To allow GPs and GP practices time to make any necessary adjustments to their arrangements to ensure compliance with applicable tax policy and legislation, Revenue have implemented transitional arrangements up to the end of 2023.

Following engagement between my Department and the HSE with the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance, the Minister for Finance has brought forward an amendment to the Finance (No.2) Bill 2023 to provide that where individual General Practitioners (GPs) enter into contracts with the HSE to provide certain medical professional services, and provide those services in the conduct of a partnership profession with other individual GPs, the income from those professional services can be treated for income tax purposes as income of the partnership. This legislation is expected to come into force on 1 January next.

My Department and the HSE continue to engage with the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance, as well as with the IMO, on this matter.