Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Childers for her contribution here today. I wish to touch on the role of medical practitioners in this country and how we as a country seem to be going outside Europe to recruit doctors. I think we now have the highest number of doctors from outside the EU compared to any other country in Europe and are taking them from countries that need to retain their own doctors. I also wish to touch on the need for co-operation between Europe and Ireland with regard to training. We are very much tied to the UK, which is very much tied to India, Pakistan, Sudan and a number of other areas. As a result, we have junior doctors coming from those countries. We need to do much more work regarding doctors travelling from within the EU to work in other countries. I do not think we are doing enough in this area. From a European perspective, there is a huge advantage for us in developing common training in a range of areas relating to medical education.