I and my officials are conscious that different geographical locations within the health service experience different recruitment challenges in relation to filling consultant posts.
Consultants' pay and terms and conditions are currently the subject of engagement between my officials, the HSE, and the representative bodies for hospital consultants, over the proposed Sláintecare Consultant Contract. As this process has not concluded, it would not be appropriate to make public details about the talks at this time, save to say that I remain committed to introducing a new contract as soon as practicable and that recruitment is an issue to be considered in the process.