Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

That is very welcome to hear and I am more than happy to work with the Minister. I can provide him with practical examples of where this has happened. I can also say, as I used to represent nurses and I do not hold a massive candle for doctors, that many GPs do this. The problem usually arises when a person goes in to get a form filled and they find out that maybe there is a new GP or they have moved to a different type of service and they just do not do that form. People are not seeing the same GP when they go back and they are coming to my office. When they go for supplementary welfare allowance, that is not always clear cut either and a lot of the time people are sent back. They are told to go to the doctor because the doctor has to do it but the doctor does not have to do it, as the Minister for Health has confirmed to me.
I really welcome that the Minister is going to examine this matter. I can tell him that I will work with him and I am sure plenty of others will as well because it cannot just be an issue in my area. I would imagine it is across the board.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18