121. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Health if her Department has considered introducing initiatives such as a refundable tax for set-up costs on new GP practices to address the current GP shortage and incentivise more GPs to open practices; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28453/26]

Sentiment score: -0.08

I ask the Minister if her Department has considered introducing initiatives such as refundable tax credits on costs of new GP practices or extensions to GP practices to try to address the current GP shortage and incentivise more GPs to extend their practices; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Sentiment score: 0.37

I thank the Minister for her very positive reply. This has an impact especially in my constituency of Kildare North, where we see a huge need for more GPs, but I have also been very aware that it is not just commuter belt areas where we have this issue. There are also areas where there are rural sustainability challenges and indeed urban deprivation strategies. Analysis shows that it is in those three areas that we have the biggest issues. For the rural areas we have put in place a rural practice grant. For the deprived areas we have a deprivation grant. However, the one thing we have not really focused on as much is the need to help the GPs in the commuter belt. I look at the town of Maynooth. It had five GP practices 15 years ago. The population has expanded probably from about 11,000 to closer to 17,000. It now has only four GPs. That is why I am really focused on this for the commuter belt area. Maynooth is just a mirror image of what I see across the constituency.

Sentiment score: 0.07

There is a lot of information in the Minister's reply and I will take on a couple of the points. I have seen the benefit of the new primary healthcare centre in Celbridge, and we have one in Kilcock. It is about maximising the outputs we can get there. I am very conscious as well that in areas like Maynooth - and this is something we have mirrored all across the country - we might have seen a GP practice in the middle of a housing estate. That would have been very common years ago. Now the new GPs may be unwilling. Will they be able to set up a practice? Will they get planning permission? These are all serious complexities for those people. Extensions, as the Minister said, are really important. If we could get those extensions, that would be phenomenal because we could have more GP services, and it is probably easier. At the same time, I am just offering the opportunity to look across the board because the more GPs we can get back the better. I know that GP services are working really complementarily with the Department and I get that feedback from them, but it is just about that chronic shortage we see in the commuter belt. We are putting in the housing, the wastewater and the roads, and it is just that social infrastructure of the likes of GPs to go with it.

Sentiment score: 0.17