Mr. Liam Woods:

I thank the Deputy. I will take those questions in reverse order. In terms of capacity, we are looking to contract some continuation of access to private facilities both directly and through our working arrangements with the NTPF. We are looking to continue to some extent the kind of work the Deputy is referring to in terms of the private system over the three months to the end of June. That would support additional work. The South/South West hospital group has separately made proposals which will be incorporated into our winter planning approach relating to additional space that can come on in the short term in modular form across the group. That goes from Waterford over to Kerry, as the Deputy will be aware, but includes Cork. That will be considered in the coming weeks as part of our winter planning.

On the retirement of consultants and the national doctor training programme, we have information on approximate numbers of consultants who will retire at any point in time. I do not have that information here. The Deputy asked for a number up to July 2021. We might be able to return some information to him from the doctor training programme in that regard and perhaps from our HR in terms of a pension retirement view. That information is known. The intent of the Deputy's query was to ask if we can start recruiting prospectively to shorten the gap between a retirement and a new recruitment. That was a recommendation in a report that was done to accelerate consultant recruitment within the HSE by Professor Frank Keane so there is no reason that cannot take place. In fact, I have seen many instances where it does take place.

On the SpRs and the completed training, I understand dialogue has taken place and there is a strong desire to retain as many doctors as possible.

I will come back to the committee with further detail but it is our intention to retain as many as possible and work is under way to support such retention.