Mr. Martin Varley:

The Deputy has summed it up well. The main criticism was with the officials who have a responsibility to engage and to ensure whatever arrangements the Government puts in place work well. As I said in our earlier discussions, on matters such as this, we need tripartite discussions between health service management, representatives of private hospital and representatives of private practice consultants.

When one of these is neglected, one ends up with a situation such as was described earlier in which it is as if one pays a lot of money to hire aircraft without engaging with the pilots. That is extremely regrettable. Our members wanted to commit to this huge national challenge and did so despite a suitable contract not being available. As a result, not all of them could sign the contract. We need to make sure any future engagement is carried out on the basis of the necessary considerations being taken into account in shaping any future arrangements.