Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is what I am trying to understand. Fianna Fáil's position is unambiguous. In government we would reverse this in full and immediately. We included it as one of the top priorities for the budget negotiations and although we saw movement on some matters, for the second year in the row we got no movement on this issue. I do not understand it and it makes no sense. It is not logical. When I saw the budget documents yesterday, it really bothered me that there was no provision made for this. The delegate will understand as someone who worked in the Department of Finance that there is a loose suggestion that all parties will come together for talks with the Government at some undetermined date in the future, but there is no provision made in the budget for next year for bringing about the reversal if the talks are successful. We heard from the Medical Council earlier that for every one doctor leaving medicine in 2014, three doctors left in 2018. It feels like we have passed a tipping point in the collapse of access.

Perhaps I might get the thoughts of the delegates on a final point. The shortfall in the number of doctors is far more than what we typically speak about. Dr. O'Hanlon indicated the shortfall was approximately 500 consultants; there are approximately 3,300 approved posts and we are missing approximately 500 full-time consultants in thse posts. That is a number that would keep us from having the lowest level of consultants in Europe. Accepting that the figure is 43% below average, based on the latest data, getting to the European average number of consultants for our size of population would require us to add approximately 1,600 posts. If we are just to get to the European average, therefore, we need to fill the 500 posts and hire an additional 1,600 consultants. That suggests we are short more than 2,000 consultants. Does the Irish Hospital Consultants Association have a view on what it would take just to get to a normal level of doctors in this country?