I thank the Deputy for raising those issues. The House has spent the past hour and a half talking about healthcare. Deputy Donnelly was here - Deputy Calleary is now filling in for him, according to the Ceann Comhairle - asking the relevant questions.

The Deputy asked what we are doing to recruit consultants. We have active recruitment campaigns both at home and abroad. We are increasing the number of training places to ensure that we can produce more homegrown consultants. There is a worldwide shortage of consultant psychologists and psychiatrists. We are actively competing to ensure that we fill vacant posts. I answered questions last week about the specific shortages of staff in the area of CAMHS, particularly in the south east. There is real urgency in Government dealing with those recruitment challenges.

As the Taoiseach reminded the House this week, the challenges we face in healthcare are not solely financial. We are spending significantly more on healthcare than we have ever done, but certain areas are under pressure with waiting lists that are far too long, even though in many areas waiting lists are now shortening. We will continue to spend the resources we need to fill those gaps to provide a basic and good high-quality level of healthcare to people. In specific areas we have challenges in getting the skill sets that we need. We need to increase the training spaces in those areas to ensure we can fill those gaps domestically.

There is no sense in increasing training spaces when people do not want to remain in the service. They see people like Dr. Kieran Moore and many others resigning or retiring because of low morale. We need to start actively filling the 450 vacancies. While there is international competition for those positions, our pay structures for consultants and our backup for consultants are not at the races. There is no sense in having what the Tánaiste called "active recruitment campaigns" when we are not dealing with the issues. When prospective consultants look at working in Ireland, they look at the pressures we are under.

We need to address the waiting lists. It is unbelievable that in May we had more patients on trolleys than we had in November. I listened to the Tánaiste's response. We have a Cabinet of commentators on our health service. The Tánaiste and his colleagues are in charge. We need proactive and decisive action on this or we will have more people on waiting lists, more people on trolleys and more people suffering while the Tánaiste and his colleagues continue to commentate.

I understand that Dr. Kieran Moore did not have a waiting list and I compliment him on how he managed the challenges he faced.

His words were "untenable and unsafe".

He has expressed concerns over the service in the south east-----

A great man though.

-----and we are addressing those concerns directly.

We have no services.

On the broader challenges of recruitment, the State is limited in what it can offer in terms of salary levels and consultant contracts. We have consultant contracts that we believe to be appropriate. However, there is competition for consultants in certain specialist areas globally. We will need to continue to review how we get the numbers we need into the health system. I assure the Deputy that it is not because of a lack of finance, because that is available. It is a combination of targeted recruitment campaigns at home and abroad and increased training places in areas where there is a skill set shortage.