I bring to the Taoiseach's attention a matter I raised before regarding operation of the GP service, or how it cannot operate in many cases. On Sunday night last, in the great town of Milltown, we had a public meeting that was attended by 360 people. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the crisis facing them because it is not sustainable for a GP to provide a service in Milltown. It is a great and fast-growing town in the heart of Kerry and its plight is reflected in places elsewhere, not just in Kerry but across the country. GPs are genuinely finding it hard to continue to provide services With the costs involved in running a service, they are finding it genuinely financially difficult to set up a new general practitioner service, which we all know is so important for older, middle-aged or younger people in our population. Will the Taoiseach tell us what steps the Government will take to create a better environment for GPs to operate in rural areas in particular?

The meeting on Sunday night highlighted Milltown and I ask that the Department of Health and its Minister engage with the community and local politicians to resolve the matter. We had a meeting yesterday in Killarney and that proposal has been progressed somewhat. It is part of the Sláintecare objectives to roll out primary care in every community and Milltown is just an example of many rural towns and urban areas that are finding it very difficult to maintain and replace retiring GPs. The matter must be tackled and financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cuts affecting GPs must be reversed. There is also a need to look at the wider area of supports from the Health Service Executive to encourage GPs to take up contracts. Without primary care services or GPs operating in every town and village, the recovery of the health service will be almost impossible.

I want to add my weight and call on the Government to ensure people in places like Milltown can have a GP service. To give the Taoiseach an idea of the area, there are 8,000 people in that catchment area and Milltown is the heart of mid-Kerry. If we cannot keep a GP in Milltown, there is no hope that outlying places around the coast of Kerry will have a GP of their own. The Government’s policies are wrong. It is not being supportive of GPs who want to operate a practice in these kinds of areas. In Rathmore, where we have ended up with half of a GP service, if people get sick, they have to travel all the way to Millstreet. That is not acceptable. If only half a service is being provided, it means the Government is saying to people they can only get sick when the GP has a clinic.

We will get an answer for the Deputy now.

We need a full-time GP service in Milltown, full stop.

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. I acknowledge there are some rural areas, and also some urban areas, where we are struggling to recruit GPs. Often, individual circumstances are the reason that is the case. Much of this has to do with the fact that the world has changed and GPs are much less willing to be single-handed in the way they were in the past. They want to work in group practices and to be able to share weekend and night cover. That makes it much harder to provide a GP everywhere because GPs now tend to work in groups. Notwithstanding that, there are now more GPs in Ireland than ever before, more GPs on the specialist register than ever before-----

Where are they? Are they in Dublin?

-----and more GPs have contracts with the HSE than ever before. What are we doing about it? We have increased the rural practice allowance and made it easier to qualify for that. A sum of €2 million has been set aside for a particular effort to recruit and retain GPs in urban areas. We have an agreement with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, to reverse the reductions in fees, that is, to reverse FEMPI. We are also increasing the number of training places. I was delighted to see just a few days ago that a record number of young doctors applied for the GP scheme. Never before have so many GPs applied to get on the GP scheme. We will have to increase the number of places again. That we have the highest ever number of applicants for the scheme shows that confidence is returning to general practice, and that is great.

The Taoiseach is wrong.

The Deputy is entitled to his opinion but there is only one set of facts.