Minister for Health Mary Harney has told the Dáil of a need to increase the number of GPs in the country.
During Ministers' Questions, Mary Harney said there is currently around 2,500 GPs in Ireland, which is low in comparison with other EU and OECD countries.
She said the Government had introduced a number of initiatives to address the problem, including a doubling of the number of medical school places.
The minister said that an additional 36 GP training places had been allocated, which brought the number up to 120. That number is expected to rise to 150 in total, she said.
Fine Gael Health Spokesperson James Reilly said there was a manpower crisis and that 50% of GPs would be retiring within the next 12 years.
He said two out of three doctors were unable to access the training positions and that an average of 200 places were needed to train doctors in order to deal with the problem.
The Dáil debate comes after a survey found that more than 25% of family doctors are not taking on any new patients.
Survey highlights recruitment problems
A survey of more than 1,000 GPs was carried out by the Irish College of General Practitioners.
The majority of GPs surveyed believe there are not enough doctors working in general practice.
Over 50% of GPs surveyed had problems recruiting partners to their practice, while 66% had difficulty recruiting assistants.
Half of the GPs surveyed plan to retire before 2020.
Dr Mark Walsh, Irish College of General Practitioners Chairman, said the survey shows that the increase in the population and in the workload of GPs is making it more difficult for them to operate.
He said part of the problem was that extra funding promised by the Health Service Executive for training of GPs was withdrawn last year.
Dr Walsh also said that the population of GPs in Ireland is diminishing due to the older age profile of GPs.
