Vol. 516 No. 2
121 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the safeguards, if any, in place to ensure that doctors who are struck off registers abroad on the grounds of misconduct are not allowed to practice in this country. [7369/00]
Ireland has a very strict regulatory regime which ensures that only competent and properly qualified medical staff can work in this country. A doctor is not allowed to practise medicine without being registered in Ireland by the Medical Council. The council was established under the Medical Practitioners Act, 1978, and registers doctors who qualify from Irish medical schools. It also registers doctors who have been educated and trained in other jurisdictions before they can practise medicine in Ireland. The Medical Council has authority to register doctors from other EU member states who have rights to practise here under EU freedom of movement directives. I know that the council works closely with registration bodies in other jurisdictions, including the General Medical Council in the United Kingdom.
Once properly registered, a doctor is entitled to practise here. For those doctors seeking employment in the public hospital system, as for any other prospective employee, it is the responsibility of employing authorities to check references and previous employment histories of candidates prior to employing them. Specifically, in relation to hospital consultants, the Department has issued a circular to all employing authorities on the need to ensure that these matters are in order prior to consultants taking up duty on either a permanent or locum basis.
The Local Appointments Commission processes a number of senior medical posts on behalf of the health service employers. Its procedures for hospital consultant posts place the requirement on each candidate to supply three references in advance of the interview stage. For other posts, where the volume of applications would make this procedure prohibitive, the commission carries out these checks on the successful candidate or candidates in advance of making a final recommendation to the employer. Both the Local Appointments Commission and the health service employers agency consider it good recruitment practice to obtain references from new appointees and continue to promulgate this practice among health service employers.
