Dr. Gabrielle Colleran:

If one visits every high level academic institution in the United States, the chances are that one will find more Irish people in them. Our teams in emergency departments are firefighting on the front line. We have 89 emergency department consultants across 29 acute emergency departments. There are 42 such consultants in one part of Australia alone. We have exported our medical talent and need to bring them back now. We need to change the narrative. To be honest, the Government has been at war with consultants for ten years. It has to stop. We are the Government's full-forward line. Consultants are part of a health team that includes the Minister, the Department of Health and the HSE. We have to work with patients as part of a team to deliver care. As I said, the narrative has to change. Health has to stop being a political football that is used for political gain by people on either side of the political divide. We have to start putting patients in the centre where they are. None of us has a job without the public and patients. We would all do well to remember that.