Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I appreciate the Deputy's point about patient safety because tired doctors are certainly not safe doctors. The first HSE initiative was to take effect from 18 February and this led to the ballot, which was about three things — a training grant of €3,810 per doctor per annum; a meal break of €25 million per annum; and a living out allowance of €11 million. This is a total of €45 million. These are archaic allowances that are in the system. Much of the change will come through work practices. The new consultant contract which I believe can now be activated, will mean consultants working an extended working day and providing cover in hospitals at weekends. This will mean that daily discharges are possible. A clinical director will be responsible for making all this happen. This will fundamentally alter how our hospitals work. Much of the overtime bill in our hospitals results from not having consultants available in the hospitals up to 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. in the evening or over the weekends. I do not know the precise number of consultants to be recruited this year but we must recruit them in order to reduce the amount of money paid for non-consultant hospital doctors. In the mid-west we are recruiting two accident and emergency consultants, one dermatologist, some for rheumatology. I know the numbers by region but I am not certain what the total number is. There will be many recruited for the cancer area and we are currently recruiting a number of physicians in radiation, oncology and surgery. I understand some of those doctors will be starting very soon.

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