Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Reid and the other witnesses for their work in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. I will make a comment and I do not want a response on it. It is about cohort 4. It is important to outline to people, with regard to the cohort with underlying medical conditions, whether dialysis or chemotherapy treatment, that vaccination will not be delivered immediately to them but that it will be done over a period of time. I have received a huge number of calls over the past week from people looking for clarification. It would be helpful if it was clearly set out that this is a four or five week programme and that it will not happen overnight. This is important.

I want to go back to the issue of interns because it has been raised by a number of speakers. There is a lot of misinformation and I need clarification. Last year, 1,100 were taken on. My understanding is that up to 60% of interns leave after one year in Ireland. Perhaps we might get some clarification on this. What percentage of interns left in 2017, 2018 and 2019? If we take 60% of 1,100 it would leave us with 440 people. If we take 60% of 734 it would leave us with 294 people.

To me, it does not make sense to now reduce the number of interns because there is going to be quite a big exodus once people are able to travel and the pandemic is under control worldwide. I am not sure whether we are doing long-term planning very well. If one looks at all the hospitals across the country outside of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, the vast majority of junior doctors are non-EU qualified. Please explain how we are going to deal with that issue. Why are we so reliant on doctors from as far away as Pakistan, Nigeria and the Sudan coming into Ireland? Now, when we have an opportunity to deal with the issue, we have walked away from it again.