Professor Eilis McGovern:

I reiterate Mr. O'Brien's remarks. Someone asked if this is a recurring problem every July and if there is any long-term plan. The long-term plan relates to reducing the number of service posts. Vacancies occur in the service posts, the training posts are mostly filled by our own graduates. About 20% of posts are service grade posts and that is why we depend on doctors coming from other countries. Our plan is to convert most of those posts to training posts in the next two to three years. We need to create those training posts to build capacity in the system for the Fottrell graduates. We have gone from 340 graduates per annum to 725 expected next year, when the Fottrell numbers plateau. If we could envisage in two or three years' time a situation where we had more intern posts, more trainee posts and many fewer service grade posts, perhaps 200 fewer, the recurring nature of the vacancy problem in July would recede greatly.

I reiterate the remarks I made the last time we were here. We have an international responsibility to train doctors from low and middle-income countries. It would never be our goal to be completely self-sustaining. Every First World country traditionally trains doctors from less well-off countries so they can go back to those countries and add value to their health services.