I begin by commending Deputy Rice on bringing forward this motion and basing it on in-depth engagement with people affected by the crisis in GP care as well as with policy that can address it. The Government is blue in the face accusing the Social Democrats of having no solutions to the problems we highlight, which are problems it has created through a failure to plan, a failure to invest and a myopic ideological default to privatisation. The Government can rest easy today because this motion contains clear and practical solutions, which, despite the Government's narrative, we consistently tend to provide. At its core, this debate is about something simple yet transformative. Access to a GP is the front door to our health system. When that door is locked or costs too much to open, so much else backs up behind it, leading to hospital waiting lists, overcrowded emergency departments and untreated illnesses in our communities. The evidence collected by Deputy Rice is overwhelming. Our party survey shows that while almost all respondents are registered with GPs, only one in eight can get a same- or next-day appointment. One in three face a wait of a week or more and nearly half of respondents ended up in emergency departments or out-of-hours services simply because they could not access daytime GP care. This is not a functioning general practice system; it is a system under severe strain. Cost is also a major barrier. Three in five people report delaying or avoiding seeing their GP because of fees, which can range from €50 to €100. Ireland, as Deputy Rice outlined, remains an outlier in Europe by not providing universal GP access free at the point of need. Sláintecare settled the principle of universal access years ago. What is missing now is delivery and a credible timeline from the Government. Capacity pressures are equally stark. The ESRI estimates that we will need up to 1,200 additional GPs by 2040. The Irish College of GPs, ICGP, suggests that the shortfall may already be closer to 2,000. At the same time, hundreds of GPs are approaching retirement. One of the structural problems in this regard is that we continue to expect doctors to become entrepreneurs if they are to become GPs. Young doctors finishing training are effectively being asked to set up and run small businesses. They must secure a premises, hire staff, manage payroll and deal with administration and financial risk before they can even begin providing medical care. For many, that model simply no longer fits modern medical careers or life. It is a major barrier to recruitment, particularly in rural areas, socio-economically deprived communities and fast-growing towns. Direct recruitment of doctors by the HSE through a salaried GP model would offer a practical way around this. It would allow GPs to focus on clinical work rather than business risk. It would remove the upfront financial barrier to establishing practices and give the State a direct means of replacing GPs when the need to do so is greatest. Access is also deeply unequal. Rural communities struggle to recruit doctors. Deprived communities carry heavier illness burdens and have fewer GPs.

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