Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Minister's reply to Deputy Donnelly's question, I rarely ask the Minister to spend more. I ask that he reorient the spending away from expensive agency staff and outsourcing and to towards directly employed staff instead. The Minister has agreed on a number of occasions that this represents the best value for money.

My question today is very simple and relates to consultant doctors and the shortages thereof that are being experienced across the State. Perhaps the Minister will make the distinction between those consultants who are eligible to be on the specialist register and those who are not. This is an emerging issue within the health service. It is important whenever we count those figures to do so on a realistic basis and only count consultants who are on the register.

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