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

I thank the Deputy for his suggestion and I will certainly ask the CEO of the HSE and the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to examine that. Certainly, the Government has no principled objection to part-time contracts. We issue them all the time across the public service. It does not always result in a net increase in the number of people working in these roles, because once offered, some full-time people go part-time, so there can be gains and losses on that. It is certainly something we are willing to consider, as is the use of out-of-hours buildings and facilities where there is space available. That makes sense to me and I think a lot of parents would welcome the convenience of being able to take their kids to an appointment in the evening when they are finished their own work. That is a good idea too.

I agree that the solution to a lot of these problems that we face with recruitment and retention in our health service, and other areas of the public service and private sector, is going to be innovation. It is simply the case that in the world whole, there are more vacancies for these skilled positions than there are people qualified to do them, and we have to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things. A lot of things are being developed, particularly online and virtually, that can make a huge difference. It might not be appropriate for a first consultation, but for repeat consultations and so on it can make a huge difference too.

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