Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Yes, but we also need to look at how we construct services, particularly specialist ones. As I said earlier, I can remember 20 years ago having a fairly serious row with the private provider in Galway, pleading with it not to go ahead with radiation oncology because we had planned to develop radiation oncology in University Hospital Galway. We said that there would not be enough radiation oncologist experts around to do both. We are witnessing a proliferation of both private services and public services and we do not have the human resources to cover them. There are worldwide shortages in some of these areas. That said, the Deputy's basic point is a good one about workforce planning and making sure there is a connection between the plans of the health service dovetailing back to the education sector. That is critically important.

The other key issue is CORU and the various regulatory bodies. They are improving but they need to be faster, more efficient and less protectionist about how they do things. There are still problems with mutual recognition across the European Union, which means that someone from France who is a speech and language therapist, or an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist needs to do something extra when they come to Ireland.