Mr. Barry O'Brien:

I would like to make some general comments regarding each question raised and Professor McGovern, Mr. Condon and Dr. Browne will then deal with all of the questions specifically, because some facts were raised by Senator Colm Burke, as well as by Deputies Mitchell O'Connor and Ó Caoláin, on specific locations. On the issue of agency recruitment, I reassure the joint committee that the HSE has no interest in employing people on an agency basis. We do so only when there is a crisis. There is no current embargo and nor does the moratorium impinge on our capacity to employ NCHDs in an NCHD rotation. However, given the nature of our hospital system and structure, as well as the manner in which training places are approved and authorised by the training bodies, there will always be a percentage of posts which will be what are termed service posts only. In other words, to sustain our hospital infrastructure, there will be service posts and there are, for reasons best known to the doctors themselves, people who are not interested in a career path or in any sort of career ladder. They simply are people who are interested in maximising their earning potential by working on an agency basis and as a freelancer wherever they get the work.