There's a warning that the country is in the middle of a severe GP workforce crisis.
The Irish College of General Practitioners says there are currently around 4 thousand doctors, while there is a need for 6 thousand.
Medical Director of the ICGP and Cork based GP, Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan, says the further expansion of free GP care for children will place additional strain on resources:
"The expansion of the medical care system to children under the age of six, increased the consultation rate of that cohort by 30%. And we anticipate that, if and when the expansion to six to nine years, and we are very much in favour of this, but we simply don't have the workforce. We know what's going to increase the demand for consultation by about 650,000 a year".
