It is not the issue I intend to raise but reference was made to Sherkin Island. I note that constituents in the middle of my constituency have been without a phone service since the last storm as well.

I am raising the commitment in the programme for Government to make Ireland have the best education service in the world by 2026. The issue that has reared its head this week is the scramble last night by the State Examinations Commission to find examiners and superintendents in the Dublin area to supervise the State examinations. This is related to the issue of teacher shortage, which we have raised repeatedly and which has been denied by the Minister. Almost exactly a year ago, the problem was denied. It has reared its head and the chickens have come home to roost. The State Examinations Commission cannot find examiners. The Minister needs to set out his plan to assist it.

While I am on the subject, it is also the case that just a fortnight ago, politics students in the leaving certificate - a subject that has been much heralded by the Government with others coming down the track - were landed with the news that approximately 27 of them will be obliged to sit three subjects in a single day during the leaving certificate examinations. While that happens from time to time, these students had no notice of it and it is essential that the Minister intervenes in this regard.

We have established a teacher supply group. I have taken steps to increase enrolment at both undergraduate and postgraduate level for teaching supply. One of the significant reasons there is pressure is that in the past two years, we have recruited 5,000 additional teachers. That has put pressure on areas like substitution. We are determined that in areas of subject shortage, we will respond and we have a group working on that.

The State Examinations Commission is an independent body that schedules its examinations.

It seeks to accommodate people to the very best of their ability and looks at any suggestions that are put forward, but it has to try to arrange exams within a limited designated period, and it does its best to facilitate people in every why it can.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government that measures will be introduced to help patients with rare diseases. A lady in my constituency is the only person in Ireland suffering from Degos disease. The Department of Health is well aware of her situation. She is unable to access any treatment for that disease. ME Advocates Ireland plan to hold a protest outside Dáil Éireann on Thursday, 10 May, for a number of hours. That protest will be the 12 month anniversary of a protest it had last year. Myalgic encephalomyelitis, ME, is recognised and has been classified as a neurological disease by the World Health Organization, WHO, since 1969. However, the HSE is yet to recognise or acknowledge it as a disease and is yet to introduce an adequate treatment plan for sufferers of ME.

In light of the commitment in the programme for Government to assist people with rare diseases, when can a patient who is the sole sufferer from Degos disease in Ireland, and patients suffering from ME, expect to get some help and assistance and access to healthcare from the Government?

We have a national rare diseases strategy and a rare diseases office has been established to implement that strategy. I am not able to provide detailed information on those two particular conditions, so I will ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to reply in more detail, perhaps by correspondence. I should say that it is not the HSE's role to recognise or de-recognise illnesses. That is done by the ICD-10 and the DSM.

I refer to page 54 of the programme for Government, in particular to the Government's intention to build general practitioner capacity to respond to the needs of patients. There is a shortage of GPs throughout the country. Some 600 are soon to retire, and a recent survey of GPs by The Sunday Business Post found that 64% were no longer taking new patients. Young families and older people are finding it increasingly difficult to get access to GP services and are falling back on on-call services. These too are being capped. In turn, families and other people are having to go to accident and emergency departments for basic services.

The Ballagh, near Enniscorthy, County Wexford, is one area facing the prospect of no longer having a GP. Similar villages across the country are facing the same issue. When is the Government going to address the shortage of GPs in this country?

We certainly need more GPs to cope with a rising and ageing population and the increased demand for healthcare that goes with it. It is important to point out that we have never had more GPs. There are more GPs registered on the Medical Council's specialist register than ever before, and more GPs have a contract with the HSE under the general medical services scheme, GMS, than ever before.

Are those GPs practising?

Those are the facts. There is misinformation around that issue, but those are the facts.

There is a shortage of GPs in Dublin.

We have never had more GPs in Ireland with GMS contracts with the HSE. We have never had more GPs-----

Many GPs are retiring.

-----on the specialist register of the Medical Council and we have never trained more GPs. The number of places on the GP training scheme increased again this year, having also increased in the previous year. Very encouragingly it was oversubscribed; many more people applied to get on that scheme than there were places, so we will increase it again.