Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I should add to my comments earlier that a waiting list initiative is under way and we are seeing substantial falls in the number of people who are waiting a long time to see a consultant or to have an operation. The number of people who are waiting more than six, 12 or 18 months is now falling. That is a result of the additional resources being put in. The target should really be 11 or 12 weeks, not six months or a year. We are at least seeing some progress in regard to the long waiters.

In regard to GPs there is a big shortage. On Friday I met some GPs in east Galway. They are offering positions in their practice at €120,000 for a four-day week with a practice nurse and with a manager yet cannot get any applicants. That shows the kind of challenge we face. In response to that we have doubled the number of trainees but we need to do much more work with them to encourage them to stay in Ireland because there is an exodus of GP trainees from the country and they are not coming back. In regard to consultants, ten years ago there were 2,500 consultants. There are now 4,200. There has been a huge increase in the number of consultants in Ireland. However, we have vacancies and many positions filled by locums, as the Deputy mentioned. We think the new consultant contract is very attractive with a salary of over €250,000 a year. Anyone would agree that is a very good offer for a 37-hour week. However, we are asking in return that those consultants who take up that contract commit to public practice and work those 37 hours in a public hospital and only do private practice on their own time in a private hospital.

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