Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As a committee, we should facilitate a meeting where the two groups could come together. There is no sense in people operating separately. We know what each group wants, is supposed to do and hopes to achieve. We accept all that but we cannot continue to have a health service where the staff are drained on an annual basis and go elsewhere.

We have heard this again and again. They go elsewhere to serve in other health services. We seem to have a relatively expensive health service in this country. It is not the most expensive but very nearly the most expensive. At the same time, we do not have the best services, notwithstanding the fact the people who provide the service at the front line are second to none and have done a great job throughout the pandemic and at other times. We need to bring reality to bear on the situation in trying to ensure we have a continuous smooth line through the system whereby patients can expect to be diagnosed, treated and discharged within a reasonable time.