I send good wishes for Christmas and the new year to the Ceann Comhairle, all of the staff and everyone here. I raise a matter relating to non-EEA doctors who are working in Ireland. Under the current rules, a non-EEA doctor cannot get a stamp 4 residency permit unless he or she has been working here for more than five years. The Tánaiste talked earlier in the week about changing the rules so that a non-EEA doctor can get a stamp 4 permit after two years. That would allow such doctors to get onto specialist training programmes. When will those rules be introduced? What kind of timescale is being considered? It is an extremely important matter. More than 6,000 doctors in the healthcare sector are not in specialist training. Can we bring in these changes on the earliest possible date and will the Minister give us a timeline?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Non-EEA, non-European doctors make an enormous contribution to the Irish heath service. They have been doing service jobs in hospitals throughout the country for decades. They have also done a phenomenal job during the pandemic. Non-European doctors are not always treated very well in our system. It is hard for them to get consultant posts or to get on specialist training schemes. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and I are working on it and will change it. We have already changed the system to allow for a two-year work permit so a doctor does not need to change his or her work permit every time he or she moves hospital every six months. In addition, we are going to offer stamp 4 visas to non-European doctors who are here for more than two years. That will allow those doctors to qualify for specialist training schemes and apply for consultant posts on the same basis as an Irish or EU citizen, once they have been working in our system for two years. We will be implementing those changes in a matter of weeks.