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

I will move to the junior doctor issue, which has been raised. There is a problem with getting junior doctors in many smaller hospitals such as Letterkenny, Mayo, Drogheda or even Clonmel. Going outside the major centres such as Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin, many of the hospitals are finding it difficult to get junior doctors. In previous schemes there may have been a rotation of doctors from one hospital to another. They started at the bigger hospital and move to the smaller hospital. Many of the rotations did not work out and people stayed in bigger hospitals and never came to the smaller hospitals. If we are doing something with junior doctors, we must do it in a planned way so smaller hospitals do not lose out.

On the junior doctor matter there is also the question of stamp 4. This cuts across the Department of Health and others; it may take in three Departments. My understanding is a person must be in Ireland for five years and it was agreed that stamp 4 permits would be given to anybody who was here for two or more years. What progress has been made in implementing that?