Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wanted a detailed breakdown of the number of consultant positions in each hospital and the number of vacancies. Fifteen years ago, every hospital under the old health board system planned the recruitment of a new consultant when it knew someone was retiring. We now seem to have no mechanism in place. An average of 120 or 150 consultants retire every year. There is no reason that we should not advertise those posts 12 months before those people retire so that there is someone to fill the posts the minute the retirees walk out the door. The answer I got to that question today is as if someone pressed a button and did no research because when I put that question in October 2013, I got the same answer as I got today. I put the question in 2014 and I got a detailed reply. I cannot understand why that detailed reply in 2014 could not have been updated for today’s reply. I do not think it is acceptable. We were asked to submit questions four weeks before this meeting and it is not acceptable that someone can press a button and give me an answer without doing any research, especially when it was already set up in January 2014. We have made no progress since then on this issue, which is an extremely important matter. There are three parts saying it is not possible to give the answer, yet in January 2014 I could get an answer to the same questions. Surely there should be a carry on from something that was decided in January 2014 and records could be updated accordingly without someone pressing a button.