Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The urgent care centre in Connolly Hospital Dublin is currently open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. I would like those hours extended by an hour either side, that is, from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Children's Health Ireland is working on that.

I have no confidence in some of the work practices of our consultants - absolutely none - when I see private practice and income being put ahead of the public health service. I am sure the Deputy will stand with me when I table proposals shortly to pay consultants much more money. In return, however, consultants will be expected to work in the public health service. It will also be expected that public beds will used for public practice and public patients, as in the case that was so well articulated by the Deputy earlier. It may make the Deputy politically uncomfortable but on this issue, I believe the gap or difference between us is smaller than on many other issues. The Fianna Fáil Party has not yet made its position clear on this issue, whereas the Labour Party, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael have. We believe consultants should be paid much more but if they want to do private practice, they should do it in private hospitals, not in our public hospitals. We will have to pay them much more to do that.

There is no free money here. Nurses and midwives did not get any free money. When they were offered an enhanced contract, better pay and conditions and improved career prospects, they agreed to a number of changes to work practices, as did our GPs. So too will our pharmacists and dentists, and likewise our consultants. No one is protected beyond reproach or scrutiny. I am certainly not but nobody else is either.

We will have a plan on Tallaght. I am sure Ms Éilish Hardiman, the chief executive officer of Children's Health Ireland, who is responsible for this facility, can brief the committee on this matter. The Tallaght urgent care centre is due to open towards the end of next year. We will have tabled significant proposals long in advance of that offering consultants much more money to work in the public health service and I emphasis the public aspect of the health service. I need to make this point, because one will not hear it anywhere else. Throughout the 2000s - the years of economic boom - there were approximately 7,000 doctors working in the Irish public health service. There are now more than 10,000 doctors in the health service. While we have vacancies and there is more to do, there are approximately 3,000 more doctors working in our public hospitals than there were in 2007, 2008 and 2009.