Dr. John Hillery:

The Chair asked why our proposals are not taken up. On the issue of doctors from countries such as India, it is a matter for the Department of Health and the Oireachtas to change the Medical Practitioners Act. We had been told it was dependent on a large Bill to put through certain factors to do with the Medical Practitioners Act and that we had to wait for that, but we have been told that for a few years now. Then two weeks ago, all of us on the medical register got an email saying the Medical Practitioners Act had been amended to say that we had to have indemnity for our practices. That made me wonder. There was already an ethical guide that we had to follow. I do not know why it needed to be put in law, but we need a provision in law so that we can take more doctors in. Many members will know doctors from India and other countries who are consultants or general practitioners, and many in psychiatry. Their successors can no longer come here to be trainees. Funnily, they can be on the general register, so they can come here and practise without any supervision or any education but they cannot become consultants and they cannot enter our training schemes. The delay is with the Department of Health which is saying it wants bring a larger Bill to the Oireachtas. However, we would say if it can bring one forward on insurance, surely it can do so on this issue. I put that to the Minister last week.