General Practitioner Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2015

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Questions (673)

Billy Kelleher

Question:

673. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 516 of 20 October 2015, his Department's estimate of the cost of extending free general practitioner care to all those under 18 years of age, and to the population at large, on the basis of the scope and content of the general practitioner service, and the relevant fee structure and the eligibility rates presently applying to the under-6s scheme; alternatively, if he will provide an estimate based on the budget 2016 allocation to provide free general practitioner care for those 12 years of age and under. [37484/15]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Health

In the absence of specific details of the scope and content of the GP service, which is the subject of negotiations which have already commenced with the IMO, it would not be possible to produce the estimate requested by the Deputy in respect of those population cohorts.

The Department has not undertaken analyses such as applying the cost of the under 6 cohort or the over-70s cohort to another cohort.