Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Richmond raises the question of fast-track citizenship for those working on the front line. I understand the difficulty in prioritising one employment group over another within that process. There is another way of looking at it, as set out in a letter sent to the Government and to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, by 50 consultants from Beaumont Hospital on how front-line workers are being treated. It is about the stamp 4 system and how one can acquire stamp 4 status. This is for eligibility for training, which is so important for progressing to consultant status and being able to remain in the country. We have people who are coming top of their classes who are leaving Ireland because they cannot get the training to continue to progress their careers. The letter, which I will send to the Minister of State, outlines that clearly. One can get the stamp 4 status through marriage but not through working in the HSE. People are coming here, spending hundreds of thousands of euro on their training in our medical schools, from which our medical schools are benefiting. They are not then eligible for internship. I appreciate that is a matter for the Department of Health but because of our immigration system and because of the backlog in citizenship, as well as this stamp 4 issue, they are then not eligible to stay and progress their careers for us to benefit from their experience and expertise. I will forward the letter and I would be obliged if the Minister of State would look at it.

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