Health Services Staff
Seanad Éireann — 2022-12-14
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Anne Rabbitte (FF), Galway East

I absolutely agree with the Senator. There are practical issues involved. Not having a PLAB examination until November 2023 is not acceptable, to be quite honest. I will take that point with me when I leave the Chamber. I acknowledge and commend the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for ensuring that where English has been a barrier for some of the UK citizens who have arrived here, funding and space has been made available. That is welcome. However, there is a cohort of people who would be ready to hit the ground running if they were allowed the opportunity to sit that examination. It is less than a year since Ukrainians arrived in Kiltormer and there was an endocrinologist among them. Ballinasloe is just up the road and Galway is on the other side. There is a rich availability of talent that the HSE would be unable to recruit if it had three years to do so. We do not want to lose that talent. We have a dearth of talent across the board. We have a war on two fronts. There is the Ukrainian war and there is also a war to keep our health services ticking over. I will talk to the Minister about that issue. I will also write to the Medical Council of Ireland to see if the matter can be expedited. This is an exceptional circumstance that requires an exceptional intervention. There could be many winners.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-12-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-12-14