James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have two quick questions. Is it a common practice for non-specialist doctors to act as consultants? Is it a concern and is it acceptable or is it a blurring of professional lines? Is it safe and is the HSE attempting to normalise it and make it acceptable within the recruitment process? What are the consequences in the short term and the long term, both for the health care system and for patients?

Ireland has the longest targeted waiting time in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, countries of 18 months. We are even failing to meet that. The Minister regularly blames the lack of staff. Is that purely a staffing issue, and therefore a recruitment issue, or are there other key difficulties that could be resolved but are leading us to have the single worst waiting times in OECD countries? There are eastern European countries where 25 years ago, we were looking at their health care systems and families were going over to those countries to rescue children from those systems. We remember the television programmes back in the day. They now have far superior health care systems in terms of waiting times and access than we do. In the respect we have not moved. They are my two questions.