Mr. Robert Watt:

There was some debate about this last week and there were statistics thrown around that were misleading. A class of graduating doctors were asked if they were leaving Ireland and I think 90% of them said they may wish to leave. If one went to any group of graduates from the universities and asked them if they would like to spend some time abroad, they would all say that they would. I thought some of those statistics were misleading. I think there is a challenge in the health system but I do not think it is as chronic as some of the media has reported. The Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, responded to some of that reporting and said that the position is a little bit different. I think it is correct to say that we have never had as many doctors in the system in the history of the State as we do now. If there was a major retention problem - a really chronic problem - that would not be the case. That is not to suggest that we could not do more to attract people from abroad who have left. The HSE has been involved in those recruitment campaigns.