Dr. Tony O'Connell:

There are not enough dermatologists to do that rotation at the moment. Certainly, patients can receive a consultation in other centres but currently there are not enough consultants to cover every hospital in the country for each of the potential sessions that are available. We are finding that we have to pay agency rates for a number of consultants nationally. For example, we are currently employing at least 50 consultants at a cost of €300,000 per annumto provide services in places like Limerick and Galway. There are huge challenges in attracting consultants to deliver these services and there is only so much work that individual consultants can do.