Mr. Jim Breslin:

The Department will shortly publish a workforce planning framework, which will set out the methodology for planning a workforce within the health service in total, but also within individual components of same. We have researched how other countries have done this. We will embed the framework in the HSE and the Department. It will have elements of a demand analysis, that is, how many staff of a certain type are needed, a supply analysis, or how many are being trained in the education system, and how to address on a systematic basis those workplace issues that we need to work on to try to create the type of opportunities to which people will respond.

We have started working on general practice in that regard, but we will have to apply the full framework to primary care and GP practice and work on that over the full ten-year period. It will be a rate-limiting step in terms of how quickly and how far we progress. There is no point in discussing this matter as needing hundreds of millions, or even billions, of euro if we cannot get staff. The fundamental piece of implementation will relate to the workforce and the key components of same, particularly given that we are trying to shift the model of care. Continuing with programmes based in certain settings is no good when one is trying to shift out of those settings. We need to develop new programmes for the type of work that we want to do. In particular, we should train people to work in a multidisciplinary way as well as in their traditional unidisciplinary way.

We will publish that framework shortly. We also have a global workforce conference in Dublin next week. We would be happy to forward the framework to the committee and have officials discuss it. Ms Mannion and colleagues in the HSE had a great deal of input into the framework and are working to try to progress the agenda of improving our planning and implementation of workforce plans.