Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, I recall that from my days on the working time directive compliance committee. If every NCHD worked his or her rostered hours, we would not have been sitting in the room. The issue is the additional hours that are worked on top of the rostered hours. Hopefully, that will be reflected in the Medical Council's survey because it is important. I am not seeking to undermine or contradict the HSE figures but it would be wrong to believe that the problem is fixed. Admittedly, it is closer to being fixed which is very welcome.

On the issue of those who are not on the specialist register but who are practising as consultants, I have seen correspondence from the HSE advising that no specific supervision arrangements are in place for that group of doctors. My reading is that there could not be specific, one-to-one supervision because if there was someone available to do such supervision, he or she could do the work. I have had conversations with people in the HSE about this issue. There does not seem to be any target in terms of converting these people. I would not try to interfere with any person's lawful entitlement to a contract of indefinite duration but there does not seem to be any major push from the HSE to get these people onto the register or to intervene. When a person has a lawful entitlement to a contract of indefinite duration, there is nothing that can, or should, be done about that. Does the Medical Council have any information to suggest that there is any effort being made to tackle this? I also ask the witnesses to comment on the supervision arrangements.