Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Health in view of the fact that Health Service Executive had to carry out a major recruitment drive for doctors outside of Ireland in response to a shortage of doctors in the HSE last year if he will give an update on this shortage; if he foresees similar shortages in future; if he has brought to the attention of Irish hospitals that provide clinical training for medical students and also to the attention to of the Department of Education and Skill that there is this shortfall and that there is a need to increase places to study medicine at colleges here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38283/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In February 2012, the Health Service Executive launched a national centralised application process for Non Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs). The purpose of the process was to generate sufficient numbers of qualified applicants for the July 2012 intake and for future intakes of NCHDs. This process is intended to provide a continual stream of suitable candidates to meet the demand in particularly challenging specialties such as Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry.

The HSE recruits approximately 15% of NCHDs – all of whom are recruited to non-training posts. 81% of NCHDs are recruited by postgraduate training bodies for placement in hospitals/agencies. While deficits in the NCHD workforce have been a priority issue for the past three years, the HSE response has ensured that there has been little, if any, service reduction or change arising from problems filling posts. The key issue is the quality of applicants rather than whether the post can be filled.

Three separate recruitment processes have been undertaken in preparation for the January and July 2013 rotations:

- Postgraduate training bodies are filling posts on training schemes

- the HSE Centralised Applications process – where NCHDs apply centrally but are recruited at hospital group level

- Other external HSE-funded initiatives (the most recent in South Africa)

As of 13 September 2012 there were 47 posts in HSE hospitals and agencies which were reported as vacant. This 1% of all NCHD posts.

The are no reported vacancies at Specialist Registrar level and it is also anticipated that there will be no vacancies at Intern level.

In 2006 the Government agreed a programme of reform of medical education and training which included a phased increase in EU medical places at undergraduate level. The reforms included an increase of 420 medical places for Irish and EU students on a phased basis over the period 2006 to 2011 with the objective of achieving self-sufficiency in terms of medical staffing and to reduce our reliance on the recruitment of overseas doctors. This increased intake will result in a greater availability of medical graduates to the Irish health service in the coming years.