Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wholeheartedly agree and, in fact, I met a group of foreign doctors who are non-consultant hospital doctors. They have two very reasonable asks. One is on their visas. They need to update their visas regularly. From memory it is every six months but please do not hold me to that. It may be different for different countries. I am engaging with the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, on this.

The second issue is one the Deputy, I and other members discussed at the committee in the previous Dáil.

It involved the situation where some foreign NCHDs do not have access to the consultant track and, therefore, do not have access to some of the ongoing continuing professional development that is needed. I have met a group of them about that and it is something we are working on with the Department. It is something I would like to see sorted out for two reasons. One is because, ideally, we want them to stay here and, therefore, we want them to be able to train up to be consultants. We want them all to be the best clinicians they can be and right now, they do not have that opportunity. Even if they do want to go back to their country of origin, there is an ethical responsibility on, and an opportunity for, Ireland to train them up as consultants as well as possible. It is something we are working on.