Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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2541. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on the GP training programme; the number on the programme in each of the years 2015 to 2024, inclusive; the destinations of those on the programme upon completion; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40766/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed, as per the Programme for Government, to increase the number of GPs through a combination of international recruitment and increased training places. Significant increases have been made in recent years to the number of new entrant training places available, which will in turn increase the number of doctors who graduate and practice as GPs across the country.

The annual intake to the GP training scheme has been increased by approximately 80% from 2019 to 2024, with 350 new entrant training places made available from 2024. As a result, the number of GP graduates has increased in recent years and will continue to increase in the coming years.

The below table shows the total number of doctors undertaking GP training in each year from 2015 to 2024; over this period, the number of doctors in training has increased by almost 80%.

The ICGP’s 2023 Career Intentions survey on a sample of current GP trainees and recent (2017-2022) GP graduates, shows a high rate of retention among new GP graduates. At the time of the survey 96% of GP graduates surveyed were in Ireland (only 11 of 269 graduates surveyed lived abroad).

A monthly breakdown of the number of HSE contracted GPs by Local Health Office (LHO) is available online through the PCRS portal, and can be used to show the change in the number of contracted GPs per LHO over time. As of this month, the number of HSE contracted GPs is 3,198, including 2,566 GPs who hold a General Medical Services (GMS) contract for the provision of GP care without charges to medical card and GP visit card holders.