There is a common theme running through the questions here today and it is the level of public service delivery falling well short of demand. GP services are another example of that. The number of GPs is at a crisis level. There are approximately 4,300 in the State, which is 2,000 fewer than what is considered safe to run the health service, and 1,000 GPs are going to retire within the next five years. Last year, 442 GPs out of a class of 725 emigrated to work in other countries. Thousands of people cannot get onto doctors' lists and those who do are waiting up to two weeks for an appointment. This is having the effect of significantly clogging the accident and emergency system. There has been some increase in the number of college places and some GPs are being brought in from abroad but this goes nowhere near what is needed to fix the problems. We have an increased population, an older population, doctor retirements and young doctors emigrating. When will this Government start to look beyond the M50 and make sure that regional and rural Ireland has enough GPs?

To be fair to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, to his Department and to the HSE they have put in a huge amount of work to increase the training places, working closely with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The numbers are certainly going in the right direction. The number of doctors entering GP training has more than doubled from 120 back in 2009 to 286 last year and 350 new entrant training places are planned for this year. That has been matched with an increase in the funding and the budget being made available by the Minister. Back in 2019 the HSE paid just over €560 million to GPs across all the fees and support schemes there. Last year that figure had increased to €790 million, which is an increase of €230 million or 41%. They have a whole range of initiatives to help communities ensure access to GP cover. I acknowledge the point the Deputy is making.