Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposals on the table for the next several months are great but a significant gap remains between the reality for those who deliver the services and the stuff that is on paper. How much unrostered, unpaid overtime is being worked by NCHDs at present? Who is responsible for monitoring what are clearly buckets of hours? We have all heard anecdotal evidence about particular blackspots in terms of difficult employment conditions in certain areas of the country. Who is responsible for maintaining the relationship with the human resources people at certain hospitals? The stories we have been told suggest they have been manipulating circumstances to get more hours out of NCHDs by withholding study leave hours or days off. Who is responsible for managing that? There is a definite gap between the evidence given by those who deliver services and the people who are responsible for managing them. There must be a reason.