Professor Damian McCormack:

For instance, when the NTPF started, some of my consultant surgeon colleagues in the public sector switched contract because they made so much money from the NTPF. They went to the private side. We are competing against the private sector for nurses and for consultants. They are the competitors. For the national public body, the private sector and the few individuals who are involved in that system are the competition, yet they have free access to the Department of Health, they advise the Department of Health and they have free access to the HSE. If I was a businessman, I would deal with a competitor as a competitor. I would not let him into my boardroom. I would not allow individuals to wear six or seven hats so that, today, they can be in a committee in this hospital group, tomorrow, they can be on a committee in this private university and, the next day, they can be on another committee. This is going on. The system is pretty broken in that sense.