Dr. Anthony Breslin:

The figure is a live figure. People register and de-register for a number of reasons. The number of doctors on the general register indicating that they practice in Ireland as consultants is 254. That figure covers the public and private sectors. Of those, 165 say they practise in both public and private services, and 149 indicated that they work as hospital consultants in the public service only. Under that 149, approximately 62 people were working as consultants and employed as such before 2008, before specialist registration was enacted in the 2007 Act. Those people had the opportunity to go on the specialist register, to "grandfather" across because they had experience, but they did not do so for one reason or another. The council is in discussion with the HSE about that number of individuals, as the HSE has mentioned. There is then a balance of people who started post-2008 and who have not completed formal specialist training and are not entitled to be on the specialist register at present, unless they are assessed in another fashion. I hope that clarifies some of the numbers. The numbers will vary slightly depending on when they are looked at because of the live nature of the register.