At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health yesterday, the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr. Robert Watt, confirmed that it is not intended to appoint a new chair to the medical consultants contract negotiations. The chair who was there, Marguerite Bolger, was appointed to the High Court last September. Seven months later, we still have no chair. There are 838 consulting vacancies at present around the country and no progress has made in getting consultants appointed. In addition, there has been no progress in the negotiations. Was the decision not to appoint a new chairperson taken by the Government. What is the intention with regard to progressing these negotiations in order to ensure that we have an attractive contract for people who want to work in Ireland but who believe that the current terms on offer are not suitable in the context of either their experience or of how they want to work in the Irish health system?

There has been no Government decision on this per se. Talks were convened under an independent chair. They went on for some time. That independent chair has now been appointed to the courts. Unfortunately, those talks were not successful. It is now intended, therefore, that the Government will re-engage in the coming weeks with the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association with the revised offer. I hope they will accept it. I think most Members of the House would agree that €252,000 a year is not a bad salary. That is what is on offer. Some modifications to that will be offered, which I hope consultants will find acceptable.

The figure of 800 vacancies is a little misleading. Most of those positions are filled by locums or people on temporary contracts. The impression is sometimes given that a vacant post means that nobody is there doing the job. That is not the case. In any walk of life or any business, there will be people whose positions involve temporary contracts or who operate on a locum basis.