Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentation. I have some very brief questions. I am frustrated about the recruitment and retention issue.

Mr. Duffy mentioned positions for nursing being oversubscribed, but there is a swallow hole of emptiness when it comes to looking for specific staff in areas of the mental health sector. I cannot understand it. If one needs a pound of sugar tomorrow, one goes to the shop for a pound of sugar. If one needs two pounds the day after, one buys the two pounds of sugar. We are dealing with forward planning. If we know there is going to be a shortage in coming years, and Mr. Duffy referred to retirements and the fact that a certain number will leave, why are we not training more staff? Why are we not giving them better opportunities?

Mr. Duffy mentioned demographics as well, which set off a light in my head. Why can we not plan? I have been following this matter for the last 14 or 15 years, including in my short time as a Member of the House, and in that time everybody who has appeared before committees has spoken about the problems. Nobody speaks about the solutions. We know the demographics in certain areas and we know which teams are fully staffed within the CAMHS and which are not. Why can we not pick a specific area and state that the plan for the next two years is to fully staff that area and provide the resources to do that? If one moves out of Dublin rents are far cheaper. We should be forward planning for that. There is a model in the hospital in Southampton where the staff who work there have cheap accommodation on campus. There are solutions but nobody comes up with them.

Mr. Duffy referred to the examination in detail of recruitment and retention, yet there appears to be a lack of evidence or very little detail. If there is very little detail how can we get an evidence base? Can the commission provide details of the health service employers' engagements that took place and what grades it examined? Is it possible to get that? I was struck by the line that the PSPC will not take the place of direct negotiations between the Government and employee representatives. The witness referred to the FEMPI. If the commission is not engaging with it what is the purpose of the commission's report on that?

The witness spoke about recruitment and retention. It is frightening that part of another report that was attached to the documents today regarding CAMHS and the 57 units that were investigated shows that 79% of the units that were inspected were non-compliant. Some 69% were non-compliant and deemed to be high or critical risk to residents, not to mind staff, and 51% of the regulated services were non-compliant on an ongoing basis. That is one area that is toxic. If we are expecting somebody to put his or her hand into the boiling pot without cooling the water we are in trouble. This is not a personal attack on the commission but just shows the system. The presentation is all about the problems and no solutions. We need solutions. Will the day ever come when somebody will grab the bull by the horns? My area of Cork is a disaster when it comes to CAMHS. It has a huge population so we should staff the service and move on to the next county and then the next county.