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

I do not consider myself to be unruly but nor will I sit here and be misrepresented. As to the engagement the Minister speaks of, how does that manifest itself in his daily work? What is the level of engagement? As the person in charge, what is the Minister's level of engagement with, for example, the IHCA or the IMO? Has he sat down with them directly? Does he have a plan in place?

In recent weeks, both Susan Mitchell and Paul Cullen have quoted from the report to the national doctors training and planning project team on the employment of consultants not registered in a specialist division of the register of medical practitioners. That is a very serious issue and it is not being dealt with. It is not good enough to hide behind what the Minister says is an international crisis. I will get the document the Minister refers to. I have addressed the IHCA conference and I have spoken to the consultants in this regard. I have no difficulty with people being paid well for a job well done but we have a recruitment and retention crisis. Pay is a serious element of that and it needs to be addressed. However, at the moment, the Minister presides over a health service that is a deeply unattractive place to work. That is why we cannot recruit and retain consultants. That is why we are spending money, day in and day out, going abroad to recruit consultants and plugging the gaps with agency staff. I have not heard anything from the Minister today that leads me to believe it will be any different.

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