I propose to take Questions Nos. 123 and 255 together.
I am pleased that so many consultants have already accepted, or indicated they will be accepting, the new contract. In April 2008 the HSE re-commenced its consultant recruitment process and 128 posts have been advertised to date. The recruitment process to fill these posts is underway. During the period from May to August the HSE approved a further 59 consultant posts bringing the total number of consultants approved since April to 187.
I would emphasise, however, that it is not a question of simply providing more funding to employ more consultants. The creation and funding of further consultant posts will be driven by service priorities, as reflected in the HSE's Annual Service Plan, and the policy of achieving a better balance between the numbers of consultants and non-consultant hospital doctors. Government policy is to have a consultant-delivered, rather than a consultant-led service. The new contract is designed to support this and, as in many areas of our health services, service improvements will depend to a much greater extent on mobilising and re-configuring existing resources than on new additional funds.
