Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the progress in dealing with MRSA by hospitals. A total of 19 hospitals had no cases of MRSA in 2013, which is a major improvement on a number of years ago. The total number of cases decreased from 550 in 2006 to slightly in excess of 200 in 2013, and long may that progress continue. We all have a part to play when entering hospitals or other medical facilities to use the disinfectant provided and to ensure we do not bring infection in with us. It is important to get that message across.

I tabled a question to the Minister for Health at last week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children about vacant consultant posts. According to the reply I received, it appears 12% of all hospital consultant posts are vacant. A total of 253 out of 2,029 are vacant in HSE hospitals. I do not have the figure for voluntary hospitals but I am sure the percentage is similar. This means more than 300 consultant posts are vacant. This matter needs to be examined urgently and we need to debate how this can be tackled. We are competing on the world market with Canada, the US, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries to recruit highly qualified medical personnel. It is time we examined how we can respond to the vacancies that exist and the posts that are advertised, for which suitable candidates do not apply.

I ask that we have a debate on that in the not-too-distant future.