Ms Susan Clyne:

I wish there was a quick easy answer; however, unfortunately, there is not. The first thing is that we cannot just have an audit alone. We have to have a full review that looks at all of the issues and not only focuses on the action of a particular staff member who was left unsupported.

It really does come down to recruitment. If there are not the professionals on the ground to deliver the care, the care will not be delivered. You can have all the shiny buildings you like, or you can have terrible buildings, and there is a big mixture of both - not everyone is operating out of purpose-built centres - but we cannot solve the problem without recruitment policies in place.

I do no not accept that the recruitment policy is a legacy issue. The recruitment policy is a live issue and it has been a live issue since the day it was brought in by a former Minister for Health. It has had devastating effects. Until that is dealt with and we accept that we cannot run a service without the correct number of people delivering that care, it is the patients who will suffer. There is no quick fix that we can do today.

I would make the point that every single person working in that service goes in to do their best for the children who are accessing care in that service. Everybody is committed. However, there is not the level of shock within the service that there might be within other areas looking in on this, because they are working with this day to day.

No more than my colleagues at the IHCA, we are exhausted from talking about this for ten years and saying it must happen. This will keep happening if we keep taking the same attitude toward recruitment and our public services will continue to absolutely fail to be able to encourage doctors to stay in Ireland or come back to Ireland. Our trainees will not stay here. They see what it is like for their consultant colleagues.

They know they will come in on inequitable and unfair contracts. Abroad, they have systems that will support them in order that they can support and deliver best care to the patient. I am afraid there is no quick fix, but it is certainly not a legacy issue. It is very much a live issue, and the Government absolutely has it within its power to address it. It has committed to it. The last three Ministers for Health have committed to it and have failed to do it.