General Practitioner Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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John Paul O'Shea (FG), Cork North-West

The issue of vacant GP posts across Cork is placing serious pressure on communities, particularly in rural areas. Access to a GP is a cornerstone of our primary care system, yet in many towns and villages people are finding it increasingly difficult to register with a doctor or to secure a timely appointment. When GP posts remain vacant for long periods, the impact is felt immediately by the patient, by the neighbouring practices, which are already under pressure, and by the local health services. We need clear timelines and transparency from the HSE on how the vacancies can be filled and what interim measures are being put in place to ensure patients are not left without access to essential care.
Primary care must be strengthened. Two of the biggest issues that come up in my office every single week are access to a GP and access to consultant orthodontists in Cork. I urge the Minister to try to address those two issues for Cork over the next couple of weeks.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05