The Minister for Health and Children is awaiting a report from the Southern Health Board on the employment of a consultant psychiatrist at Bantry General Hospital, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dail.

In a reply to Mr Jim O'Keeffe (FG, Cork South-West) he said that the consultant psychiatrist had been suspended from practising medicine by the British Columbian College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada for two years with effect from April, 1996. He had been employed in Bantry since August 1996.