Mr. Cian O'Dowd:

We have backed the idea of a consultant-delivered health service and the evidence is there to suggest that consultant doctors, when delivering care on the front line, do so faster, more efficiently and in a more cost-effective manner. There should be enough consultant posts within the system in a consultant-delivered health service to adequately address career progression issues within the NCHD cohort. It requires an undertaking to say that we are committed to the idea of a consultant-delivered health service and are going to put it in place in the interests of patient welfare. I do not know if Dr. McGarry has any thoughts on that.