Mr. Anthony Owens:

We made a fairly detailed submission to the Public Service Pay Commission on this. There are issues which we survey which revolve around remuneration, access to supports, administrative supports, surgery and clinical time, and so on. There is a variety of issues. There is no one reason why every post is unattractive. It is post-specific in many cases. The Deputy mentioned that doctors go abroad, including the Middle East. The people we would look to bring in as consultants, the Irish-trained doctors, would tend not to go to the Middle East. They would be more likely to go to the UK, Canada or Australia. They would pay tax in those jurisdictions but they would also have access to a far greater range of supports, work shorter hours and so on. There are other factors around that. There are remuneration issues too. The Deputy asked if the number of empty consultant posts is going up or down. The figure is probably tipping up slightly. It includes temporary and short-term appointments, which is part of the reason that we are here today, discussing this. I will finish on the Middle East. We have found that doctors, at later stages in their careers, are more inclined to go to the Middle East. It is an issue for general practice more so, in our experience, than for hospital doctors.