Mr. Andrew Condon:

The core issue, as we have discussed, is to address the employment contract because an NCHD can have certainty regarding where his or her training is going to be delivered via a robust training agreement. Therefore, the question is why they have to break employment every six months and that will be addressed by the hospital groups. At the moment we have approximately 45% of our NCHDs working for the HSE, with the remainder working in HSE-funded agencies. By definition, the health service is currently delivered by that mosaic of HSE and HSE-funded entities. When we move to the full iteration of hospital groups there will be changes to the employment arrangements.

In response to Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, we had 513 interns a few years ago, 580 this year and will have 630 this July. We will have 740 in 2014. In the space of a few years, the number of intern places has gone up by more than 200. The HSE has done that without additional funding and without changes in the numbers it can employ. It has made other changes to accommodate those people. That gives the Deputy a concrete example of the changes that are happening.