David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, who has just had to go to another appointment, I thank the Deputy for tabling this important matter. I was interested in what she had to say. As she knows, individuals seeking to enter the State in order to work as a GP are eligible to apply for a critical skills employment permit from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. With this permit, an individual may apply to the Department of Justice and Equality for permission to reside in the State for the purpose of employment as a locum doctor. The residence permission - a stamp 1 permission - allows such an individual to remain in the State under a contract of employment for a period of up to two years and can be renewed. At the end of that two-year period, it is open to individuals to make an application for permission to reside in the State under stamp 4 conditions, which grant unrestricted access to the labour market. In instances where an individual or his or her employer does not wish to enter into a contract of full-time employment in this regard, it is open to the individual to make an application under the atypical working scheme, operated by the Department of Justice and Equality, in order to receive permission to work in the State as a medical professional on a short-term basis for up to a maximum of 90 days. This permission allows an individual to work in this manner for up to eight months in a calendar year.

Extension of the atypical working scheme to include locum practitioners in the primary care area was implemented on the basis of consultations in 2015 between the Departments of Justice and Equality; Health; and Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the HSE. As part of those consultations, the evidence available suggested that longer term contracts of employment that would allow an individual to make an application for a critical skills employment permit from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation were not especially desired either by the individual medical professionals themselves or by their employers. Accordingly, it was determined that the expansion of the atypical working scheme to facilitate the HSE in meeting urgent healthcare recruitment requirements was the best course of action.

I can advise that in 2018 a total of 90 individual doctors engaged in employment under the scheme in this manner and that 95 individuals have done so to date in 2019. Further advice from key stakeholders received over the course of 2019 indicates that these figures represent a minority cohort of the total number of overseas medical professionals engaged to provide locum services in the State. The Minister has made some changes this month, but I will probably say more about those in my next contribution.

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