The Labour leader Joan Burton says Health Minister Leo Varadkar needs to be asked why we are not training more GPs.

It comes after Mr Varadkar announced that free GP care for all is not a feasible goal for the next government.

One of the reasons he gave was the shortage of GPs in Ireland.

However Ms Burton says he needs to be asked why we are not training more.

Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Billy Kelleher says it represents a "complete abandoning" of University Health Insurance and free GP care.

"This eve of election u-turn on the part of Minister Varadkar is deeply cynical and draws to a close Fine Gael’s five disastrous years of management of the health service", he said.