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

There is a huge change in that we have had a 40% increase in the population over the last 23 years. We have a huge demand for services. Can anything be done to expedite the delivery of these additional services? We can talk all we like about the employment of more consultants but consider what happens if we employ more consultants. For instance, one consultant came from the United States of America and was doing two days a week of operations in the States. This consultant is now doing a half day per week here in Ireland, is totally frustrated and is talking about going back to the States again. What is the point in taking on consultants if we cannot give them the infrastructure? There is also the question of the use of existing infrastructure. Is there efficient use of existing infrastructure? For instance, in some places there are no operations done after 4 p.m. What are we doing about those issues?