I thank my colleague, Deputy Rice, for bringing this motion forward and the huge amount of work he has done in outlining what we should have in this country, that is, free GP care. As already stated, Ireland is an outlier when it comes to free GP care. In Europe, access to adequate GP care, especially in disadvantaged areas like parts of my constituency of Dublin South-Central, is vital in order to have healthy communities. Research from adverse childhood experiences and longitudinal studies like the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing show that ageing populations need greater care and disadvantaged areas need preventative care from an earlier age. Adverse childhood experiences are more prevalent in areas of socio-economic disadvantage because of intergenerational poverty and trauma. A child who experiences four or more adverse childhood experiences growing up is more likely to die prematurely of preventable diseases. For those who do not know, an adverse childhood experience includes a child growing up in poverty, living in homelessness or an insecure housing situation or being the victim of abuse, whether physical, sexual, psychological or emotional. When this is combined with life choices, such as addictive behaviours or psychological and mental health challenges, it leads to poor medical outcomes for people who have experienced such adversity. It is vital that GPs in poorer areas of the country, where adverse experiences are more prevalent, are trained to understand not only why it happens but how to help and deal with someone who comes to them in adult life for support. Of course, those GPs need to be supported because they are more likely to suffer burnout, similar to other people working in those communities. Of course, GP care is not available often because of pricing or the lack of timely appointments. Some of the responses from the survey that Deputy Rice gathered state, “Trying to get an appointment is like winning the lottery. They are always busy.”. Another individual stated: I actually rarely bother going to the GP as the typical wait time for a chest infection is six weeks. Because of this, I have to go to the out-of-hours doctor. If I were to wait for the GP appointment, I would be healthy again by that time. I should not have to just wait for a bad chest infection to pass and be in pain when I could get antibiotics and be ok within the week. If adverse childhood experiences cannot be prevented, we have to be able to deal with them. If people cannot get appointments because they are not available or too expensive, that will create a challenge for them.

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