The Dáil will debate a Social Democrats’ motion on Wednesday (February 25) aimed at addressing the crisis in GP care in Ireland.
The party’s 20-point plan sets out a number of key measures to improve access, remove costs and increase capacity when it comes to general practitioner care in Ireland.
These include:
- Introducing free GP care to under-12s this year, to be extended to all age groups by 2030.
- A new GP contract and a salaried GP model – with doctors directly employed by the HSE – for underserved communities, beginning with rural areas and offshore islands.
- A Deis for GPs’ scheme, offering deprivation-weighted capitation rates.
- Developing a nationwide HSE locum bank to ensure that all GPs can take their leave.
- Accelerating the delivery of HSE-built primary care centres to provide GPs with suitable premises to establish practices without taking on the huge cost of ‘bricks and mortar’.
Pádraig Rice TD, the party’s spokesperson on health, said:
“Successive governments have presided over a litany of failures in the Department of Health – not least the delivery of free GP care.
“The 2016 Programme for Government committed to extending free GP care to under-18s. But since then we’ve had three governments – all including Fine Gael – and we are still waiting. All that has been delivered is an extra two years, expanding free GP care from under-sixes in 2015 to under-eights in 2023.
“During that period, Sláintecare was published – a major 10-year plan to reform our health service and create a universal single-tier health and social care system comparable to other countries. It called for the delivery of free GP and primary care services by year five of implementation.
“That target has come and gone, and it seems this go-slow government has no intention of delivering it during its lifetime. In fact, the latest pledge in the Programme for Government is just to extend free GP care to children aged at least 12. This serious scaling back of ambition is typical of what we have come to expect from FF/FG-led governments.
“In terms of cost, Ireland is a complete outlier in Europe where people pay anywhere between €50 and €100 per visit, with some patients having to choose between putting food on the table or seeing a GP.
“Free GP care for everyone may sound radical but it is the European norm. In fact, 17 EU member states provide GP care for free. In four more, it costs under €2. Even in the most expensive EU countries, it costs no more than €30 to see your GP.
“And when it comes to capacity, the government has ignored repeated calls to introduce a new GP contract and reform the current model of general practice, which is deterring young doctors from entering the profession and pushing them out of Ireland.
“In 2019, the government committed to reviewing the contractual framework and the model more generally. However, that review did not get going until 2023 – four years later – and although it was due to be completed by the end of that year, it is still ongoing.
“For deprived areas, we propose to introduce a Deis for GPs’ scheme, with deprivation-weighted capitation rates. Currently, there is a significant jump in capitation rates for medical card patients aged over 70 to reflect the greater health needs of older patients. But in deprived areas, patients have these higher health needs at a younger age – something that is not recognised in the existing system and needs to be addressed.
“In rural areas, we urgently need entirely new models to address the deficit of GPs. A key proposal in our plan is the introduction of salaried GPs, which was recommended in the 2017 Sláintecare plan.
“We all know that general practice needs more than a quick fix – it needs fundamental reform. That’s why, in the absence of government action, we have set out a comprehensive 20-point plan.
“Our motion on Wednesday must be a wake-up call for the minister, because she cannot ignore the difficulties patients have in accessing GP care – both in terms of accessibility and affordability – any longer.”
February 24, 2026
Note: full wording of Soc Dems’ motion on Expanding Access to GP Care here