Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate Senator Burke's ongoing interest in this area. As I said earlier, I accept that there are serious recruitment and retention issues in the health service, which are particularly acute when it comes to the issue of consultants. That is not just my view. We specifically asked the Public Sector Pay Commission to examine the issue and it acknowledged that there were recruitment and retention issues in regard to consultants. I want to build on the commission's findings and have an engagement with consultants on how we can rectify those recruitment and retention issues. I genuinely believe that pay parity is an issue but I do not believe it is the only issue. We need to examine Dr. Donal De Buitléir's report, and the OECD which I commissioned and published on the same day as I published the De Buitléir report, in regard to what other countries do regarding work practice as well.

Next week, my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the HSE will commence engagement with the IMO. We are commencing the engagement with the IMO because it is a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and it is a party to the public sector pay agreements. On the question regarding whether I want to see those talks broadened out after initial engagement, yes I do, but it is a matter for discussion with the IMO as well.

The IHCA has submitted more than 100 claims with the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, on the issue of new entry consultants. I would much rather that we worked out a way forward in relation to this matter through direct engagement but I will not tear up the rule book in regard to normal industrial relations. Senator Burke mentioned engagement. I was not in a position to attend the IHCA conference for an important personal and private reason. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, made himself available to attend that conference and was told that he would not be given a speaking slot, until the morning of the conference where they reversed the decision. We are more than willing to engage with consultants but we have to engage in the context of a brave and ambitious reform agenda through which we can deliver Sláintecare. Those who put together the Sláintecare report asked me to put in place a Sláintecare implementation plan, which I did. For the first time ever, we have a cross-party approach to healthcare reform in our country. I am very proud of the plan which a minority Government produced with the Opposition. That plan also states that we have to change working patterns. I was also asked to commission the De Buitléir report. To see it immediately dismissed by representative bodies is very disappointing. They should be open to engaging on the substance of it.

In response to Senator Burke's question, we will engage with consultants, commencing with the IMO. I do want to see the engagement broadened out to other consultant organisations as well. I want to resolve this issue. I am already on record in regard to, in my view, the unfairness around pay parity. We have to engage in the context of the available resources, a no-deal Brexit and a reform agenda. The resolution is not just pay. Pay is an element but so too is reform and access to theatres for young consultants. It is also about how we can engage our consultants in our primary care network and primary care teams and about how the new advanced nurse practitioners can take some of the workload in terms of care off some of our doctors. I am excited that we are going to finally engage. I would have liked this engagement to happen much earlier but I am pleased to now have agreement with colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and other places to commence it. I think we can start a conversation about an exciting journey of reform that will help with recruitment and retention.