James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I take the amendment in the spirit it is offered but, unfortunately, it is not appropriate. We do not require legislation to review the effect of this Bill, but I will give the Deputy an undertaking that it will be reviewed regularly. Indeed, the HSE keeps patient care and impact on hospitals under review on an ongoing basis and the Deputy will be able to consider the impact of this Bill, in particular.

I mention the HSE which has been spoken of in not terribly congratulatory terms in the House today. It has not delivered the care we would have liked it to have delivered over the years and that is why we promised to abolish it. The HSE, as currently constituted, will change rapidly but whatever replaces it will continue to review. The patient safety authority which the Government intends to put in place and which is a key priority of mine will, along with HIQA, be very much responsible for keeping an eye on standards and the impact of changes such as this. However, I will undertake to come back to the Deputy with a review of the operation of this legislation and he will be able to avail of that in six to eight months time because a shorter period would be too short a time to know how it is impacting.

As part of the legislation, the HSE must supervise these doctors. That would be done by doctors in the hospitals. People can be very much assured that these doctors are of a very high quality. They have already been screened and assessed by our consultants and they will be assessed again by the colleges and the Medical Council and on a two-week basis in their location of work. That is a really comprehensive assessment. I have the utmost faith in our system to safeguard our patients when it comes to this group of doctors. I echo what Deputy Kelleher said earlier that there is no way these doctors could be, in any way, construed as being inferior. In fact, they are going through a far more stringent assessment than many of the doctors who work in our system.

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