Sean Barrett (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I will probably support the Bill. I note it is necessary that doctors must be in situ in the hospitals on Monday. I also note from the Minister of State's speech, which she delivered so well, that we have trawled to recruit suitably qualified doctors, particularly doctors from India and Pakistan. Our GDP per head is nine times that of India and 13 times that of Pakistan. We are hoovering doctors out of the Third World and that is a shameful addendum to our foreign aid budget. People in Pakistan who ask where is the doctor to care for their sick people will be told that he or she was recruited by the Irish because they could not organise themselves. We will be sending doctors overseas with John O'Shea's organisation and others and putting money into collection boxes to try to help people in Third World countries while taking doctors away from them.