Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for their comprehensive presentations this morning and for the work they have done in preparing them. My understanding is that the number of medical practitioners registered in Ireland is approximately 18,000, of whom approximately 39% are non-Irish graduates. Can the witnesses provide a more accurate figure?

For those who have come to Ireland, perhaps even from outside of Europe, who completed part of their training outside Ireland, is there a process to follow to get onto the specialist register here? What do they have to do? My understanding is that Irish graduates will get on the specialist register after a five-year programme and then move on to the consultant posts, but my question relates to people who come to Ireland with three or four years of training outside Ireland and who want to enter the Irish system. How do those people get on the specialist register, if they want to stay in Ireland?

I also want to raise the issue of the grandfather clause. I spoke to a person a number of months ago who was employed pre-2008. That person has made a number of attempts, through that person's specialist area, to get onto the specialist register and on each occasion, was told that people were not aware of what the process was. In the last 12 months that person has been in contact with the Medical Council to ask what the process was. That person was advised by the Medical Council that it did not have a process for getting on the specialist register for someone who took up a job pre-2008. Can that be clarified? What is the process for people who were employed pre-2008 who are not now on the specialist register but who have been practising for quite a long time in this country? Those people are saying to me that the Medical Council has advised that it is not aware of the process in place. Perhaps the people who not on the specialist register of whom the witnesses are aware could be communicated with to advise them what the process is. The information I have is that these people do not know what the process is and that the Medical Council was not able to advise them. The institutions they work for were unable to assist them either. Perhaps the witnesses can clarify.

For those who are post-2008, I presume there would be no difficulty in communicating with them to advise what the process is. Has there been communication with those people to date or will it be done at this stage?

A specialist training programme was set up where people are on the programme for a number of years, go through the system and are then entitled to apply for consultant posts here. Of the number who have come through the training process under the specialist training programme over the past ten years, what percentage have stayed in Ireland? Does that programme now need to be reviewed in order to keep people in Ireland? I know that both the IMO and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA, have said that part of the problem is pay and conditions but are there other issues we need to look at to make sure we can retain the maximum number of people possible in this country?