Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up on how the committee might pursue this. Senator Black's suggestion that we produce a report, and publish and go public with it, is a very good one. I endorse that completely.

I will return to the question Deputy Gino Kenny raised regarding the absence of any tracking system. It seems ridiculous that we do not know where trained doctors are going. There are major issues for the health service in that but from a taxpayer perspective, and value for money and so on, the State is spending a fortune on training doctors and we do not know how many of them we can retain. It is ludicrous. It was stated more than 50% of the annual number of 725 went to Australia and there are then all the other countries. It seems we are probably talking about losing approximately 75%, at least. That does make any sense on any level.

I will ask about hospital doctors being expected to have experience abroad. Is that essential in all cases and in all branches of medicine? What is that period? Are we talking about a requirement for two years' experience abroad or how long? When could we expect to see people returning, all else being equal? When should we look for them to return? Does anybody have a figure on that? How essential is it, career-wise, to spend some time abroad?