Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses this morning and thank them for giving up their time to come to speak to us.

The word "consultant" is not defined under the Medical Practitioners Act. Is it the case that a self-declared consultant is not recognised by the Medical Council, given that the word is not defined in the first instance? What system is in place to close the loophole between the specialist division and the self-declared consultants?

Those who are not registered in the relevant specialist division cannot be appointed to a permanent position in a HSE hospital or a section 38 agency.

What is the position with regard to section 39 employees? As of 14 April, 127 consultants are still not registered in the relevant specialist workforce. As consistency surely is imperative, why has nothing been done to date to rectify this?

Dr. Ryan stated most specialist doctors who become consultants are required to complete two to three years of basic specialist training. How then is the term "self-declared consultant" acceptable given the extent of the training the others must do? Are doctors filling vacancies to make up numbers as opposed to having been adequately trained for the positions they fill? I ask Dr. Gilligan the extent to which this ambiguity is affecting the day-to-day running of hospitals. The current bed situation and hospital overcrowding has an obvious impact on medical staff in any event. To what extent is this impacting on patient safety?