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

I appreciate that. It was said earlier that politics should be taken out of medicine. Where did I hear that before? It has been ever thus, unfortunately. Think back to 2003 and 2004 when the health boards were abolished. The purpose of that exercise, according to the consultants with whom I had regular consultations at the time, was to take politics out of medicine and that it was going to work much better. It was not true. The consultants were wrong. It was the wrong diagnosis and they missed the point. It had nothing to do with it at all. The politics at local level in medicine at that time had the effect of gingering up the system and creating a combative approach within the system that everybody tried to deal with as best they could.

I am also concerned about another issue. In a previous presentation this morning there was a reference to bullying in the workplace. Unfortunately, consultants were mentioned in that context also. My question to the witnesses is how much of that goes on and why does it go on? In anticipation that the answer might be "when we are under stress we all tend to bully others", if that is the case then there would be an awful lot of bullying going on in here, and the Chairman would know this too. I want an answer to that please. There is no excuse for bullying in the workplace. It is illegal.