Mr. Robert Watt:

Our colleagues in the HSE will add to what I have to say on this. I understand a decision has been taken, a press release has been issued and the details are out there so I can talk about the details of the contract. First, this involved a long discussion and engagement with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA, but we are very happy with the outcome. A number of my colleagues, including Louise McGirr, Anne Marie Hoey and others, have been involved in for a long time in getting us to this place. Obviously the Government has agreed and we hope the representative bodies will too. Obviously they have to engage in their own democratic processes and we respect that. They have to go through their processes and reach a decision on the contract.

On the specific issue Senator Kyne mentioned, the proposals are to change the hours of work and to put new rostering arrangements in place. There is a very detailed set of principles on how that will operate, which reflect people's family considerations, work-life balance and so on. In effect, the roster hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There is the potential for people to be rostered within those timeframes. Our colleagues from the HSE can add to this but the motivation here is to have the key leaders and decision makers available in the evenings and on Saturdays when they are needed to provide the consultant-led patient care that we want. The overall deal is very detailed and very complex. There are many different aspects to it but in relation to the hours, it is about changing the rostering and hours that consultants will be asked to work in a way that helps the performance of the system over time. The contract is an enabler and there is a lot of work for us to do in terms of setting out the rosters, managing them and implementing them over time, in consultation with the representative bodies.