James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would be a great supporter of and would continue to encourage our young doctors to travel abroad to broaden their horizons and get training outside of this country and bring that expertise back with them, but they should do that form a basis of wanting to and being curious and innovative and not because they are utterly frustrated with the system they have to endure here. Specifically, on the European working time directive requirement, in regard to the maximum 24-hour shift, in quarter one of 2013 we were only 43% compliant, in quarter two we were 44% compliant, in quarter three it rose to 53% compliance, in quarter four we reached 77% compliance and in March of this year we were 93% compliant.

As for compliance in respect of an average 48-hour week, the quarterly figures for 2013 were 34%, 34%, 37% and 40%. As it was only 48% in March, we have a way to go but we are getting there. The 11-hour daily rest compensatory rate was 53% in quarter one of 2013. I will not go through all the figures but in March 2014, it was 93%. The weekly-fortnightly rest or compensatory rest was 75% in quarter one of 2013 and is at 97% this year in March. A huge amount of improvement has been made and the Government is committed to this. I do not believe it is safe for patients to be diagnosed by doctors who have been on their feet for 36 hours. We do not allow lorry drivers work for more than eight hours in a day. Why would we allow young doctors to make life-and-death decisions in those circumstances to the detriment of the patients, to the detriment of their mental health and well-being and to the absolute destruction and detriment of their careers if they make a mistake? This is about creating the system that protects patients, citizens, families and communities from the human errors that always will occur, because to err is to be human. It is to put in place a system, and certainly a system that demands a 36-hour stint from a young trainee doctor is not a system that goes anywhere near doing this.