Pledge on free GP care cannot be met: Rabbitte

A key health pledge by the Coalition to provide free GP care for all by the next election will not be met, Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte has signalled.

As Health Minister James Reilly tried to put a brave face on the troika’s demands for monthly spending reports after he allowed medical budgets to overrun by €360m, the admission was a further blow to the Government’s competency in such a high-profile area.

Despite a clear commitment in the Programme for Government to remove GP fees for all, Mr Rabbitte expressed doubts that this would be achieved.

“The pace is slower than one would have liked,” he said. “I’m convinced it will happen — the ‘all’ bit might be stretching it at this stage.

“There are three years to go in the lifetime of this Government and to try and make any prediction like that at this stage is more than the evidence in front of me,” he told Newstalk.

After the troika expressed serious concerns about the health budget, Mr Rabbitte pointedly refused to say that Dr Reilly was the best person for the job.

“He is the best minister that is in the job at the moment,” said Mr Rabbitte.

A report by the troika that oversees Ireland’s bailout funding had sharp words regarding the HSE overspend.

The Government must now report monthly to the troika in a bid to get the budget back under control.

The report, set to be discussed in the Oireachtas and its German counterpart, warns that projected health spend savings in 2012 “failed to materialise” and promised revenue-raising measures did not happen.

The troika fears that, without specific supervision of the health department this year, targets will again fail to be met.

The report says the monthly reports are needed to “track the controls and spending plans”, and explains the need for these “enhanced reporting requirements”, stating: “This should allow early detection of any slippage.”

Dr Reilly tried to play down the troika’s demand.

“I have no problem with that at all,” he said. “The more input we have, the more help we have the better, as far as I’m concerned.

“I have always said if we have more transparency, we’ll have more accountability.

“If this brings a greater sense of a need for transparency, and it certainly will, this is all to the good.

“We have now got in place a much better financial system than we had. We are monitoring very closely what is happening.”

The Programme for Government states: “Universal primary care will remove fees for GP care and will be introduced within this Government’s term of office.”