Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank Deputy Dolan for raising this issue. I would point out that we have made a number of investments to try to assist GPs in making their practices more sustainable in recent times, including a relatively new revision to the GP contract and assistance in terms of staffing for GP practices. One of the models that I am personally quite favourably disposed to, and which is allowed for in the programme for Government, is the idea of salaried GPs. When students come out of medical school and out of GP training they want to be a doctor. They want to serve their community but may not necessarily want to be the manager of all that goes with that. They want to actually be seeing patients. There are also some parts of the country where it can be more difficult to be financially viable. I would personally like to see an acceleration of the roll out of salaried GPs as one way to make progress. There are other ways and the Deputy may be implying that, in the context of our education system, we could provide more assistance and in return, people could agree to provide a level of service. That is something that should be considered too. I will ask the Minister for Health and perhaps also the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Lawless, to engage with the Deputy on this.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22