Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 January 2025
1514. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health to provide details of the funding provided by the Government to the joint Irish College of General Practitioners/Health Service Executive non-EU rural GP initiative to recruit GPs from outside Ireland in 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1202/25]
View answerThe joint HSE and ICGP International Medical Graduate (IMG) Rural GP Programme commenced in 2023 to recruit GPs from outside of Ireland to work in general practice here. Under the programme GPs work in general practice while undergoing a 2-year training programme following which they can take up a GMS contract (normally training for 4 years is required). Placement of these GPs is targeted to rural and underserved areas. 114 IMG GPs were in practice as of October last.
Funding of €6.2 and €5 million was made available for the programme for 2024 and 2025 respectively. The funding provided allows for the recruitment of up to 250 IMG GPs this year. As the programme was funded by the HSE on a pilot basis from within existing resources in 2023, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly with the details of the 2023 funding as soon as possible.
