GPs have insisted that Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, has underestimated the amount of opposition to the proposed scheme of free care for children under the age of six.

In recent days, the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), which represents around half of the country's 2,300 GPs, recommended to both members and non-members not to sign any contract relating to the under-6 scheme.

It said GPs have ‘an ethical and moral responsibility to prevent the introduction of a scheme which will only serve to increase the abhorrent inequities in our health service'.

Responding to this, Minister Varadkar said that he believed that most GPs would sign up for the scheme.

However, a new survey carried out on behalf of the NAGP has found that 93% of GPs support the recommendation not to sign any contract in relation to this scheme. It also found that 90% of GPs believe that the introduction of this scheme will increase inequality in the health system.

Participants in the survey included both members and non-members of the NAGP.

According to the association's CEO, Chris Goodey, these results ‘clearly show that the Government is out of touch with the situation on the ground'.

"It is morally and ethically wrong to use taxpayers' money to fund free care for a medically well five-year-old child of someone earning €200,000 per year when an eight-year-old with cancer whose parents are on minimum wage has to fight tooth and nail for a medical card," he commented.

The survey was carried out on behalf of the NAGP by GorillaSurvey.