Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Future of Mental Health Care
Mental Health Services: Discussion (Resumed)
1:30 pm
Dr. Kieran Moore:
------regarding the very valid point about agency staff?
To put it very simply, if a dog has a choice between being given a treat if it does a trick and being given one even if it does not, it will choose the latter. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but my analogy might make it simple. If a doctor comes to this country to be a consultant, he or she can either train to be a specialist, which takes three years and a lot of work and study on a lower salary, or go to an agency and work immediately as a consultant, although he or she has not been trained for it. After three or four years, he or she will have a contract of indefinite duration allowing him or her to be a consultant, even though he or she is not. In that sense, it is a no-brainer and I mean no disrespect to anyone. The solution is for the Legislature to examine the Medical Practitioners Act which does need to be examined.
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