Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

In my last minute, I have a question on one service in particular. There are real concerns around radiation therapy and I think it is a good example to look at in terms of where we need to change. In some parts of the country, we have old machines that need to be replaced but we do not have a clear replacement programme. Other places have new machines without people to staff them. Graduates who are graduating are not guaranteed jobs and yet there are staff shortages. Then we are outsourcing services at huge cost, with €17 million spent in the first half of this year. To me, it makes absolutely no sense across the board. We should have a clear replacement programme for the machines and we should be hiring graduates as they graduate. There were thirty graduates out of Trinity last year only ten of them got jobs, and then we are saying that the services do not have staff and we are outsourcing. It makes no sense.

This seems to be a real waste of public funds, and it needs to be addressed. I am interested in hearing the thoughts the witnesses have on that.