Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On recruitment and retention, during the hearings of the Committee on Future of Mental Health Care, we learned that to recruit a nurse, the service has to go through 25 steps between deciding that a nurse is needed and actually having approval for the nurse. If there is any gap in those 25 steps the approval may be delayed and it could be up to 18 months before a service could recruit a nurse. Is this an issue given that recruitment is national rather than regional? Sláintecare includes a proposal for regionalisation of services, one aspect being that regions would have autonomy in the recruitment of staff. Is it an issue that recruitment and retention is too centralised?