The Government's announcement that free GP care is to be extended to all children under the age of 12 ‘smacks of electioneering rather than a sincere proposal', the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said.

Free GP care was extended to all children under the age of six last July after long and difficult negotiations with the IMO, which represents doctors. A further extension to cover those under the age of 12, which was announced as part of Budget 2016, would again be subject to agreement with the organisation.

However, according to IMO president, Dr Ray Walley, no negotiations on this issue are currently taking place and the proposal is 'simply not realistic'.

"The IMO reiterates that as per its agreement with the Government, it is in negotiations on a new GP contract and there can be no question of an extension of the free GP scheme until current services are resourced appropriately," he noted.

Also responding to the announcement, the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), said that extending free GP care to children under the age of 12 without a new GP contract in place ‘represents a serious breach of trust' for all GPs.

"Planning free GP care for another large population cohort without addressing the current crisis within general practice is a recipe for disaster. The NAGP has repeatedly warned that our outdated 41-year-old contract must be renegotiated before further workload is agreed. The promise of talks on a new contract is simply not enough," commented Dr Yvonne Williams of the NAGP.

She called for an impact report on the roll-out of free GP care to all children under the age of six and all adults over the age of 70, to determine if these schemes are actually working and are cost effective.

"The NAGP is gravely concerned that almost €300,000 was spent in recent months promoting the latest doctor visit card scheme. Yet 80,000 children remain unregistered. This is money that could have funded free meningitis B vaccines for children around the country, which could have actually saved lives," Dr Williams said.

She insisted that rolling out free GP care to more children ‘while essentially flying blind, means that the Government could be wasting millions of tax payers' money'.