Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea said the Government was examining a number of initiatives including possibly the partial integration of medical services in the Defence Forces with the public hospital system in an effort to attract more doctors to work in the Army.
The Minister also indicated that he would consider proposals put forward by the Opposition that the State should sponsor students in medical school on condition that they would subsequently serve a period of time in the Defence Forces.
Mr O'Dea told the Dáil that there was an acknowledged shortage of medical officers-doctors in the medical corps.
He said there were only 22 doctors serving in the Defence Forces while the official figure should be 47.
The Minister said the pay and allowances of doctors and dentists in the Defence Forces had been recently increased substantially and that, in addition, an intensive recruitment campaign had been undertaken.
The results of both of these initiatives, however, had been disappointing, he said.
The Minister said the Department of Defence was considering engaging outside consultants to give ideas on progressing the matter.
Mr O'Dea said there were compelling reasons for the difficulties in recruitment to the medical corps. He said that firstly it was not the ideal career opportunity for a doctor as they may not get to widen their medical expertise.
"In the United Kingdom, the army medical corps and the NHS have partially integrated. Specific wards in several hospitals are set aside where army doctors treat military personnel and general patients, allowing them to widen their range of expertise.
"I am not suggesting this will be the model to follow but such arrangements are being examined," he said.
"Doctors in the Army, except when they are abroad, will treat healthy and fit young people, with a small range of ailments. It is known as occupational medicine.
"We are examining ways of attracting doctors to give them extra skills and qualifications for their time spent in the Army," he said.
Deputy Brian O'Shea of Labour said that a mechanism often used by State services when short of professionals was to provide university scholarships to attract applicants.
"An applicant, when qualified, would then give a specific length of service to the State service sponsor. Such a scheme would not require people to contract for life to the Army.
"With such a contractual arrangement, a certain number of doctors will come on-stream in the Army on an ongoing basis," he said.
The Minister said that Deputy O'Shea's suggestion of attracting individuals who want to study medicine might be a good one and "we will put it into the mix".
The Minister said civilian general practitioners were regularly engaged to provide primary care services where medical officers in the Defence Forces were not available.
"The problem in attracting personnel to the medical corps is not unique to Ireland," said Mr O'Dea.
"We are working on the problem and we will do our utmost to attract more doctors into the Army.
"While there is nothing wrong with private medical practitioners, we do not want to rely on them," he said.
