All of us will want to send our thoughts and sympathies to the families of the four-year-old child in north Dublin and the five-year-old child in Belfast who died from strep A in recent days. All of us will be thinking of their families, communities and young classmates who have suffered such devastating news of this terrible loss. There are huge levels of fear, particularly among parents and families of young children, at the rising rate of viral infections in the community and at the HSE communication asking for children with signs of illness to be kept at home. We are all conscious that our children's hospitals are under extreme pressure. On Wednesday, they were at critical capacity with so many presenting to emergency departments. It is vital that we see the urgent roll-out of free GP care to six- and seven-year-olds and the phased expansion to children aged 12 and under, as was promised in the Government's budget. We welcomed that announcement, although we in the Labour Party felt it should have gone further. At such a crucial and concerning time, we ask that the roll-out be continued apace. Can the Tánaiste give a deadline for it?

I join the Deputy in extending my deepest condolences to the families, friends and school communities of the children who died from strep A. It must be any parent or family's nightmare to have a healthy child one day who gets an illness and is gone a few days later. I cannot imagine what that must be like.

The Government is committed to extending free GP care for children. I never felt children should be means-tested based on their parents' incomes. One of the things the former Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, and I achieved together in Government was the extension of free GP care to the under-sixes. It has been extended to some other groups since, for example, carers, people with terminal illnesses and children with disabilities, but we have not managed to get beyond under-sixes and I am frustrated about that. I am sorry we did not write it into the law at the time that the age would go up by one year every year. If we had, we would be at 12 years by now. Over the last period, discussions of the consultant contract took precedence. The Minister for Health will now want to move on this issue as soon as possible.