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

I will take on board what the Minister said in regard to a policy from seven years ago and I will remind him that it is 2019. We have a recruitment and retention crisis among consultants, which the Care Can't Wait campaign by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA, is highlighting. My figures tell me we have 480 consultant vacancies across the State, which is an increase in the number of vacancies. While I am not disputing the fact there have been some hires, they are not keeping pace with demand.

The Minister referred to this being a worldwide problem. It is not a problem they are having in Perth, which is where our consultants and doctors are going, although they are being trained here. I go back to my earlier point that it is not about spending more money but about reorienting what we spend. A lot of the money we spend is spent abroad to recruit consultants, and much is wasted on agency staff and locums to fill the gaps that should be filled by directly employed staff.

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