Dr. Roisín Plunkett:

I would love to. I really appreciate Senator Devine bringing that issue up. As Dr. Hillery mentioned, it is not salary that attracts people to or puts them off work. What attracts people to or puts them off work is whether they can work effectively and be trained by somebody who is a specialist in the area and who is dedicated to developing this service and post. As the Senator mentioned, a locum - despite being a professional and being dedicated to his or her professional practice- is not in a position to develop the service or make long-term changes because there is uncertainty around how long he or she will be there. Within the service in which I work, I am aware that possibly the majority of consultant posts in Connolly Hospital are locum cover or temporary consultant cover. Not knowing who will be working alongside you or supervising you on call from day to day is a really fraught place to be as a trainee. A trainee coming through will consider how the profession will develop if this is the landscape where people are not in jobs for 20 years and do not have that security and that base. That point is really well made and I appreciate the Senator bringing it up.