Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

What also struck me is that junior doctors roughly make up one third of the medical work force in Europe and are among the main migrating group within the health care sector.

I wish the Department and the Minister well in trying to recruit more junior doctors into the system as a short-term measure to address the immediate challenges that are facing them. I hope they will be encouraged to come here when one looks at the comparative salaries paid in Britain and Ireland. I am grateful to the Minister's officials for giving me some up-to-date information the detail of which I will not go into now because of time constraints. However, specialist registrars will earn between €60,000 and €76,000 per year whereas in Britain, in trying to get a comparative scale, it suggests that the same specialist registrar would earn in the order of €60,000. Therefore, they are exceptionally well paid.