Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. We have had discussions about this issue in the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. We have heard from the Minister and representatives from the IMO and others. There is a clear wish for everybody to address this. I hope Professor MacCraith will come up with a strategy and plan and that resourcing will be put in place.

While we welcome the suspension of industrial action, the bottom line is that the HSE has been dragging its feet to a certain extent in addressing this issue. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, this has been around for many years but it has been two and a half years since the Minister came to office and it seemed to take the threat of industrial action to concentrate minds, particularly in the Department and the HSE, on addressing this fundamental issue. While Professor MacCraith will hopefully bring forward a pathway for non-consultant hospital doctors to find a career in which to specialise in their particular field, has the Minister assessed how many more non-consultant hospital doctor posts would be required to implement the working time directive in its entirety or is the Department still in that process?

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