I am aware that GP training places have increased over the years but, as my colleagues said in the House, it has not matched the population increase. I come from a constituency that has a huge deficit of GP services, especially in rapidly growing strategic development zones, SDZs, areas like Adamstown and Clonburris, and in rapidly growing areas like Citywest and Saggart. While GPs historically have been self-motivated private operators, they have not got the assistance for the modern age. I am talking about buildings they can actually move into. Historically, the GP was in a house. They lived in the house with their family, and had a separate area where they built up their practice. If they had to move out later on, they were able to do that. There are no supports in SDZs in terms of finding affordable premises. Those sorts of supports need to be provided. Equally, there are GPs who want to work within the health service and have regular hours, even if that is weekend rosters and shifts. We need to focus on employing more GPs directly. A lot of GPs are emigrating. That is a serious issue in terms of the money spent on them and getting a return. It is also a huge brain drain. We are bringing in well-qualified imports. While we would not have a service without a lot of foreign doctors, it does not make sense to be shipping out Irish people. In that context, we need to look at improving the working conditions, providing incentives in terms of training and trying to address housing. As I have mentioned in regard to gardaí and nurses, there should be some sort of short-term gap where people can live in the area where they are trying to set up a practice as part of a shared scheme with others. Otherwise it is going to be financially unsustainable. We also need proper career pathways which they have in places like Australia and New Zealand. We do not seem to have that in Ireland. We need to look at an awful lot of the administrative paperwork as well.

Sentiment score: 0.14