Dr. Peadar Gilligan:

Deputy Murphy O'Mahony asked about the day-to-day impact of this issue on hospitals and whether it is impacting in terms of overcrowding and patient safety. The question is why do we have 450 vacant consultant posts throughout the country. The reason for this is clear - Ireland is not regarded as an attractive place to work. Why is that? It is because we have a dishonoured consultant contract, significant cuts to consultants' pay, at three times that of all other public sector workers, and because consultants, particularly surgical colleagues, looking at potentially taking up a position in Ireland are finding that there is no operating theatre time available to them in the hospitals to which they are to be appointed or there is no outpatient clinical available to them. They also may not have the administrative support they require or they not have a team to provide the care that they wish to provide. As a result, they are choosing to remain where they are, which may be Canada, America, Australia or the UK and the patients of Ireland are missing out on this talent. This is a very real impact.

In regard to the unfilled consultant posts, it is fair to say that services are not being provided to patients. As I have stated previously in this committee, patients who require stroke care are not receiving it in as timely a manner as they would if there was a consultant in post. Patients requiring surgery are waiting longer because we do not have the number of surgeons that we need to provide the care.