Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no sense in increasing training spaces when people do not want to remain in the service. They see people like Dr. Kieran Moore and many others resigning or retiring because of low morale. We need to start actively filling the 450 vacancies. While there is international competition for those positions, our pay structures for consultants and our backup for consultants are not at the races. There is no sense in having what the Tánaiste called "active recruitment campaigns" when we are not dealing with the issues. When prospective consultants look at working in Ireland, they look at the pressures we are under.

We need to address the waiting lists. It is unbelievable that in May we had more patients on trolleys than we had in November. I listened to the Tánaiste's response. We have a Cabinet of commentators on our health service. The Tánaiste and his colleagues are in charge. We need proactive and decisive action on this or we will have more people on waiting lists, more people on trolleys and more people suffering while the Tánaiste and his colleagues continue to commentate.

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