Dr. Colm Henry:

I thank the Minister and the Deputy. It is important to assure members of the public who might have concerns arising from this case. Of our complement of junior doctors in the system, approximately half are in training schemes and they are recruited through training colleges. There is a solid, robust basis for that and they are generally known to our system, having come through our medical schools and worked in our hospital system, and they have references from people we know. We have a dependency on non-training doctors arising out of Working Time Directive compliance issues some years ago. All junior doctors - and I say this from personal experience - undergo mentoring and supervision appropriate not just to their level but to their background. This case, about which we cannot go into too much detail, highlights how effective the mentoring and supervision can be. The interview is one part of a process. We cannot validate everybody's background and entire knowledge and experience based on a half-hour interview, no matter how thorough it might be. If there are concerns and the candidate has come from a medical school with which the recruitment board members are not familiar and has references from people they do not know, he or she will be monitored closely because no senior doctor or consultant can afford to take risks when it comes to patient safety. This particular case is unusual but it highlights how effective the mentoring and supervision was, in that concerns were brought to light quickly before there was any contact with patients.