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

The policy related to the use of locum doctors in the primary care sector is primarily a matter for the HSE. The role of immigration service delivery of the Department of Justice and Equality is to provide immigration mechanisms for non-EEA medical personnel recruited to fill temporary vacancies in the health sector as and when required and to meet the needs identified by the HSE. These mechanisms are kept under continuous review with the HSE to ensure that the process retains sufficient flexibility to address urgent recruitment requirements as they arise.

The Department continues to liaise with the HSE to ensure that sufficient flexibility is available within the locum scheme. In that regard, I draw the Deputy's attention to the revised arrangements for locum GPs, which the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, announced recently on 22 November. It is very recent and the Deputy may not be aware of it. The revised arrangements, which are published on the immigration service delivery website, provide enhanced provisions in respect of applications processing and intermittent travel for locum doctors and offer a further demonstration of the capacity of the State to operate flexible and fluid schemes to meet fast-changing employment requirements while also promoting ongoing compliance with employment law and taxation obligations, to which the Deputy alluded, under a variety of sectors.

On the Deputy's final point, I understand that the doctors' co-operatives welcome the changes in the atypical working scheme, which were announced only last week. That is on the inis.gov.iewebsite. It means that the waiting time changes and that doctors can take some time within the 90 days to leave the country and go home if they need to do that. They were the two main requests of the GP co-operatives. Those changes were made only last week, and they have been welcomed, but we are open to other suggestions as the need arises. I hope the Deputy will be happy with that response.

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