John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly. This is our 27th meeting since the joint committee was formed and there have been many recurring themes.

On the recruitment procedure within the HSE, Dr. Harty asked if the Minister would like to be reforming. That is where I will start. Senator Gabrielle McFadden mentioned that there were about 20 steps in recruiting a psychiatric nurse. There are actually 27. It is that crazy. We were sitting here with our mouths open listening to how difficult it was to recruit one psychiatric nurse. The process could be led from the top, through the implementation office of Sláintecare, the Minister, the Minister of State and the Department of Health or the new board of management. On every issue we have dealt with, the lack of recruitment has been mentioned. There is, possibly, a worldwide shortage of trained personnel in psychiatry, as well as of doctors and GPs. We have to change our approach to deal with the crisis.

The Minister of State referred to telepsychiatry. It is a novel approach and one way of dealing with the lack of trained staff and getting better value for money. I also ask him to look at making better use of pharmacists in the community. There are 2,000 pharmacies with well trained personnel. They have been much under-utilised. Perhaps we might also look at how many homemakers would like to come back as part-time workers. We could set them up as individual consultants to try to assist in maximising the expertise available. A broad approach is needed. It is no longer acceptable to say 16 posts were advertised and that nobody applied. That will not solve anything. We have to change our approach-----