James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. It is Government policy to move to a consultant-delivered service. I am pleased to inform the House that, since the establishment of the HSE, there has been a significant increase in the number of whole-time equivalent, WTE, consultants by 723 from 1,947 in January 2005 to 2,670 in December 2013. However, there are some specialties in which there is an international shortage and that have been traditionally difficult to fill regardless of the salary scales. There are also some hospitals to which it has historically been difficult to attract applicants, in particular smaller hospitals that have onerous rosters due to a limited number of consultants. The establishment of hospital groups will help to address this issue, as they will allow doctors to be appointed as group resources instead of to just single hospitals.

The Public Appointments Service recruits permanent consultants on behalf of the HSE. All of these posts are advertised on www.publicjobs.ie, in the national newspapers, in medical journals and also on occasion through professional social networks. The terms and conditions are included in the information that accompanies these advertisements. Clearly, these include pay. They specify the types of contract being offered, for example, type A or type B, the applicable new entrant salary scale and the condition that serving permanent clinical consultants in the Irish public service are to retain the salary scales to which they were subject before these appointments.

Notwithstanding the need to reduce the numbers employed across the public service in order to meet fiscal and budgetary targets, the HSE has the capacity to recruit consultants. Arrangements are in place in the HSE to allow the recruitment of front-line staff where there is an established service need.

The HSE has advised that 34 hospital consultant posts are vacant. A further 219 consultant posts are filled by temporary or locum appointees. It should be noted that consultant posts take a number of months to fill, as applicants may be finishing training programmes or working abroad gaining additional experience at the time of their applications and, of course, are duty-bound to finish out their contracts.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The ability of the public service to attract and retain high-quality consultants shapes the extent to which the HSE can maintain and develop the range of health services required. As such, I set up a group under the chairmanship of Professor Brian McCraith last July to carry out a strategic review of medical training and career structures. The group submitted an interim report focused on training to me in December and is now progressing examination of the career structure to apply on completion of specialist training with a view to reporting to me shortly. Broader issues relating to recruitment and retention of non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, and consultants will be given further consideration on receipt of this report.

See this speech in context