Ms Susan Clyne:

It is very difficult. NCHDs know they are only going out for six months and are actually double renting. They are holding their rent. If they have an apartment in Dublin, they continue to pay that rent and then take on new rent elsewhere. They know if they have to come back to Dublin again in six months, there will be a problem with finding a job. Many of the graduate-entry medical students who come into the system at a different stage in their career have mortgages. They have a mortgage in one part of the country that they will have to continue to pay while renting in another.

More and more doctors are commuting long distances, for example between Dublin and Drogheda or Dublin and Wexford, which is not really a good way of life or sustainable, particularly in the context of the kind of hours they are working. They are not going to be relying on public transport to get them to the hospital if they are on call or to get them to their shifts.

While housing, childcare and all of these issues affect society, there needs to be some recognition that if you are asking your own workforce, which has a demographic in which children are a feature, to work nights and weekends when every crèche in the country opens from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., something has to give there.