Varadkar: Deal for free GP care good value for the Govt

The Health Minister Leo Varadkar says he does not think the Government is getting bad value for money with the deal for free GP care for the under 6s and over 70s.

Yesterday, the Irish Medical Organisation announced an agreement had been struck with the Department of Health and the HSE for its members to provide the service.

It is expected to be available from July at a cost of around €70m per year, almost double the Government's initial proposal of €37m.

The Health Minister says the Coalition made a promise to deliver the deal and it has.

Mr Varadkar said: "This is a commitment that Labour and Fine Gael made in our manifesto, it's something we said that we'd do, and we're doing it now, we said we would do it by agreement with the GPs and we have.

"It costs about €50 or €60 to go to the GP, this works out at roughly three or four consultations a year.

"I think that the over 70s deal that was done with GPs 10 or 15 years ago was in the stratosphere. I don't think this one is."