Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. I was very interested in the very desolate picture painted by Dr. Peadar Gilligan and others. It is true and we all understand the difficulties in filling posts throughout the health services. Some of the issues have been in existence for years, even before the downturn in the economy. I served on one health board and I can recall distinctly posts being left unfilled for some considerable time because it was not possible to find suitably qualified people to fill the positions. I think it is exacerbated by some of the contracts on offer in other countries. It is possible to get a two or three year tax-free lucrative contract in the Middle East. We cannot compete in this jurisdiction with that. We need to bear that in mind.

I take the point made by Dr. Gilligan that we tend to dumb down the morale and the quality of the services in Ireland by constantly criticising them, even where criticism is not warranted. That is not taking away from the fact that we do have the right to a good reliable health service that we can be proud of. We want that to happen.

We need to understand that all staff throughout the public service suffered salary cuts. It was a very sad thing at the time to break contracts. The options available at that time are well known. I am not making excuses for it, but the fact of the matter is that the entire public sector was assessed to ascertain the extend to which economies could be made. The cuts were drastic and severe, but I would like that to be borne in mind.

There is a figure of 450 vacancies; has that figure increased or decreased in the past number of years? Is the number of unfilled vacancies rising, as would appear to be the case? Can the non-EU graduates who are available practise in practise in any other EU country?

A number of graduates cannot get a place on a training scheme and I would like to know the main reasons for that and how has that number fluctuated in the past couple of years. Has the number increased or decreased? In the case of practitioners who have not completed their registration but are practising, does that in any way affect insurance cover in so far as insurance underwriting in the health services is concerned? Has there been any noticeable difference in the number of legal challenges against those who have not completed their registration as consultants and those who have?