Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

Allow me to make my point. When I was interviewed on radio last week, the HSE issued a statement asserting I did not know what I was talking about and denying that junior doctors in a particular part of the country were waiting to sit exams. This morning I intend to issue an invitation to the press office in the HSE to meet these junior doctors and see that they are living in guesthouses in a country town. If 100 Irish people were invited to take up contracts in Australia and were living without salaries in guesthouses three months later, we would be up in arms. It is a disgraceful situation and it needs to be resolved. We have created a bad name for ourselves in terms of recruiting doctors.

A study due for release in the coming week will reveal that in 2008 an average of six applicants applied for each consultant post advertised but the ratio is now less than two. When one reputable Dublin hospital recently advertised for consultant posts, no one applied for them. We must ask why Irish graduates are disappearing out of this country rather than taking posts as junior doctors or consultants. It is time we had a debate on this issue and I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Health to come to the House at the earliest opportunity to allow us deal with this issue. Our role is to ensure the issues that arise are dealt with and not passed from one Department or Government agency to another.