Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The spend of the State Claims Agency has rapidly increased. Is that due to us having a more litigious society or is it a result of recruitment issues in the health service? We have heard at length from various people, including doctors and people in the HSE, that back in the day, when a post was advertised, there would have been six or seven eminent people applying for it. However, in the past ten years we have often had positions for which one or two people applied and they were not the people to whom the job would have been given in the past. They are qualified but there is no competition there. Is the exodus of our professionally trained staff and the reliance on locums and agency staff contributing to the increase in claims?