Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I note what Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan says. It does not augur well if people are coming in knowing the solution to the problem they raise. What he is saying is that he clearly has it in writing that the HSE has already organised interim GP arrangements for the catchment area. Deputy Gould raised it earlier. I thought the implication was that it had not but it is clear now that it has. All Deputies have been informed of that. That is progress. I appreciate Deputy O'Sullivan alerting me to that.

I will examine the issue of doctors from Zimbabwe, South Africa and other locations with the ICGP. I would be supportive of being able to facilitate that in terms of the general shortage. I will talk to the Minister for Health in respect of it. I have not seen the proposal yet. I will follow that up with the Minister for Health. In the healthcare area generally, work permits are provided to allow people to come into the country. This is an Irish College of General Practitioners initiative, which means that the college is supporting it also, and that would give an added credibility to it and would be an important endorsement.

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan raised recruitment to disability services. I do not know whether the Cope Foundation has advertised for the position in Macroom, but there is an issue generally. More people have been recruited to the health service in the past two years than in previous years. It has been quite dramatic. Never before have so many people been recruited, but there remains a specific issue for recruitment of therapists to services for children with disabilities. Other services across the full spectrum of services within the HSE and within the health service more generally tend to have more success in getting therapists. The disability sector for children is problematic and it needs a specific focus, which we have said to the HSE. That covers Ballincollig as well as Macroom.

I came across a home help the other night who is not working her full hours. We have expanded the home help hours dramatically and existing home helps should be availed of to the fullest extent possible by the HSE if they are available. That point was made to me.

I will follow up on Deputy Tóibín's point but I did not quite catch it. Did he say there is an ongoing conversation between the HSE and some women in respect of the IT glitch highlighted by the MacCraith report?

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