Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the election of Joan Burton as leader of the Labour Party. The past three years has been a very difficult time to manage the budget. We pay out more than €400 million a week in social welfare week or €57 million per day. That is a huge budget which has been well managed for the past three years, and an area that the Minister tackled very well was fraud.

Yesterday a report was published on providing a clear career path for junior doctors. My first problem was accessing it so I had to contact the Department. I ask the Leader to ensure that when a report is published and given to the media, it is given to Members of the Oireachtas at the same time. I am extremely disappointed it is not available to me, particularly as I have sought changes in this area for the past three years.

It is important to realise that 4,900 non-consultant hospitals doctors work in Irish hospitals and more than 54% of them are not Irish graduates. For the past 15 and 20 years we have kicked the can down the road in terms of the way we employ them, the way we treat them and the way we pay them. It is time we implemented recommendations made in reports and not shelve them. I ask that the report be made available to us and that we have a debate in this House at some stage in the future, not only about the recommendations but to ensure a timeframe is put in place for the implementation of the recommendations in order that we do not have to deal with the same issue in two years time. We urgently need it and we urgently need the changes to be implemented.