Taoiseach says free GP care plan will go ahead

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has strongly insisted the Government will meet its election commitment to extend free GP care to people with long-term illnesses.

“The Government has not made any decision to go back on the commitment to provide free GP care for citizens – those with long-term illnesses and, ultimately, the entire cohort of the people,” he added.

Mr Kenny said Minister of State for Health Alex White, based on his knowledge of where it could lead to in terms of administrative complexity, would report to the Cabinet subcommittee on health by the end of May with a far more effective proposition on how to implement the commitment.

“It is about people, but it is also about delivering an effective and cost-effective system of best patient care under the proposals made,” said Mr Kenny.

“That commitments stands and will be delivered on, but it will be delivered on by a Minister of State who could see legal quagmires in the structure in place and who wants to change it and make recommendations to make it better.”

Mr Kenny said he would be the first to admit there was a number of items in the programme for government that had proved not to be deliverable, but this was not one of them.

Mr White, he said, was a lawyer and and could see, from looking at the structure in place, that introducing the long-term illness provision would cause complex legal problems.

Mr White, he added, had decided against getting involved in that jungle, focusing on it for a couple of months and bringing forward a service for 56,000 people that would require a legal base and teams to assess eligible candidates for assistance with long-term illnesses based on medical grounds, rather than residency and income, in the knowledge that he would need to move beyond that sector to others.

“I support him fully in that regard,” he added.

Referring to T he Irish Times report on the issue, Mr Kenny said: "Most of the story I read this morning is accurate, but the piece that is missing is that the Government has not made any decision to reverse its commitment."

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the rub was that if the story was not in T he Irish Times he would not be having a conversation with the Taoiseach about it.

“Health spokespersons or spokespersons for the Opposition would stand up here and ask questions, only to be told that it would happen by the end of the year or before the summer,” he added.

“It would be difficult for the Taoiseach to say the Government had made a hames of it, but that is what has happened.”

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Government had made promises again and again on the issue only to break them again and again. Labour was facilitating this by providing cover for Minister for Health James Reilly.

“What has to happen, Taoiseach, for you to realise what your Cabinet colleagues privately acknowledge, and what the rest of the country has known and understood for quite some time, that Minister James Reilly is not the man to lead one of the most important departments in this country,” he added.

Mr Kenny said Dr Reilly had his full support in the strategy necessary to bring about a more effective health service.