Michael Harty (Clare, Independent)
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I apologise for being late, so I may be repeating the points made. From my experience the recruitment of consultants comes down to workload and conditions. I have seen it in my own area, where it has been difficult to recruit because of workload and conditions of service. There is a deficiency in support staff and support services. When a consultant takes up a post, he or she may find that he has no office, no secretary, and that many of the members of his community psychiatric team are not there: there is no psychologist, no psychiatrist, no social worker or senior social worker or there is half a social worker or a part-time psychologist who is shared between two or three catchment areas. Pay and conditions are obviously an issue and the years of austerity decimated the pay and conditions of consultants.

During a debate in the Dáil last evening another Deputy said that we are the greatest exporter and greater importer of doctors in the world. We educate them and then we export them and then we trawl the world looking for replacements. That is surely a damning indictment of our health service.

I wish to raise the issue of anticipatory recruitment. The post of a consultant who is about to retire may not be advertised until he has retired from his job.