Ms Laverne McGuinness:

There was wide consultation on the standards with the colleges, forums and medical bodies on their development. The standards have been submitted to the European Commission and are the standards against which we are measuring ourselves. Consequently, we have acknowledged that the HSE is not in compliance with the European working time directive with regard to the figure of 48 hours. We have set out a reason this is the case. A number of measures must be taken to get there and a number of steps are in play that will help us. One is the reconfiguration of the hospitals. The smaller hospitals framework is due to be published in the coming weeks and it will allow us to ensure services will be provided in the appropriate hospital. In turn, that will allow us to free up some of the time of doctors to work on other sites in order that we will not have the same requirement in respect of hours. This pertains to hours of attendance, hours of opening, etc.

As for the figure of 54 hours to which Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin referred but to which I did not make reference in my statement, that is an average. I am conscious that it was based on manual returns and individual audits in the last study we carried out. Based on the information provided for us by the hospitals, the figure is 54 hours, although many doctors work in excess of that figure.

As part of what we are implementing, the first target is to ensure that by 31 March the weekly working hours for doctors are no more than 68, and this will be reduced. It depends on the rota that is currently there, which is the one-in-three rota. That is the target we have set. Each hospital is currently preparing its plans and implementing them to be on track for that. That is the group that Mr. Ian Carter is chairing for us.