Mr. Paul Reid:

I shall deal with some of the specifics mentioned by the Senator.

On the pay discussions in terms of consultants, that discussion is led by the Department, the HSE is engaged in it and ultimately the Minister. Those discussions are continuing. We all would like for them to reach closure soon. It is a key part of the Sláintecare reform in terms of getting what we discussed earlier, which is the provision of equity of services.

In terms of the recruitment of consultants, over the last two years we have had the highest net increase in the number of consultants that we have had for many years and I fully acknowledge that we want more consultants. We had a 470 net increase in the number of consultants, which allows for the number of people who have left the services. That is a better trajectory than we have ever been on but we do want to recruit more. As pay discussions continue it would be remiss of me to comment other than to say that we would like the discussions to reach closure, which I expect that is the same for all of the parties concerned.

On the issue of consultants raising safety issues, I must say that I was around for the last 48 hours and I know that people in the service are not shy about raising issues. I fully appreciate what the Senator has said when he outlined the experience of some people. The board of the HSE has a safety policy committee that meets every month and reports on all incidents, not just creates reports. We have a safety and quality process in place for people to strengthen the culture of openness and transparency. The openness and transparency policy that is being implemented is mandatory for training, and that is a whole issue that has been implemented since the CervicalCheck.

We are focused on strengthening the culture of openness and transparency. We are focused on where bullying has been expressed within the service. We have a campaign focused on bullying and we have looked at the employee satisfaction survey to try to get greater depth on where this is an issue. They are issues that no organisation or no leader would stand over, but I reassure members that we have a very thorough process for consultants, medics and all professionals in healthcare to raise issues where harm is done or where inappropriate clinical service is provided. I want to make sure that continues.