Junior Health Minister Alex White has said the Government is firmly committed to delivering free care for the whole population.

He told a GPs' meeting in Galway that the Government had not rowed back on free GP care but intended to speed up its implementation.

Minister White said it had become clear that the administrative framework required to provide a robust eligibility system based solely on a person's medical condition 'is likely to be overly complex and bureaucratic.'

It was revealed earlier this week that the Government was rethinking its plan for a phased introduction of free GP care, starting with patients with long-term illnesses.

Minister White told the annual conference of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) in Galway today that difficult questions had arisen on how precisely to certify an illness under such a scheme, who would do this and how it would be verifiable.

He pointed out that these difficulties would have arisen simply to deal with a temporary initial phase of the roll-out of a universal health programme where everybody was covered.

Mr White said attempting to resolve these logistical issues, although they were not insurmountable, would have inevitably led to a seriously delay in the programme.

He said he wanted GPs to provide care, not to become enmeshed in assessments for eligibility for that care.

The Minister said he had now been authorised to prepare a number of alternative options for the phased implementation of a universal GP service.

It was aimed to provide an options paper for Government in the near future, before the Dail summer recess, 'so that a clear route can be set for delivery of this key Government commitment'.

Minister White denied there had been 'some kind of row-back' on the Government commitment to introduce free GP care. He said his intention was to expedite the implementation of free GP care, not to slow it down.

He acknowledged, however, that there was frustration at the slow progress in implementing universal GP care and what people wanted to see was actual achievement. 

Minister White said a road map towards the achievement of that objective would be set out by the summer recess.

Speaking to reporters after his address, he declined to speculate on what alternative approaches to bringing in free GP care may be adopted or what the timeline would be for rolling out the scheme.

The Minister said that when there was clarity about what was planned on free GP care, negotiations could take place with GPs on the issue.

Asked why it had taken nearly two and a half years for the Government to identify the extent of the legal problems with the free GP scheme, Mr White said he had undertaken a stocktaking exercise on the Government's primary care plan when he came to office last September.

He said significant problems had arisen in terms of granting free GP care to people with chronic illnesses. It was a big ask, Mr White said, to 'shoehorn' a free GP system based on illness into a system under the current medical card scheme, that was based on financial need.

The Minister said a total of E30 million had been made available this year for implementing the free GP care scheme.

Outgoing Chairman of the ICGP, Dr John Delap, said today it was the College's policy that inability to pay should not be a barrier to accessing GP services.