Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before us and for their presentations and the information they made available. I have been around the health services for a long time and the system does not seem to change because the issues that have been raised were raised 20 years and they have not changed since then. That is the case in particular with part-time staff, agency staff, short term, part time, whole time and the various descriptions of staff within the service that seem to impact negatively at all times on the delivery of the service.

In recent days, I also heard reference to the fact that Ireland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I reminisced on the days of the Celtic tiger when we were high on the list of the wealthiest countries. Of course, it is not true. Our wealth is based on salaries and house property values, which are unsustainable and can fluctuate from day to day. We know that because it happened previously. The problem is that we are not recovering to the point from where we fell in 2007 as fast as we need to, but we are getting there as fast as we can. That is the conundrum.

When the moratorium on recruitment was introduced, was any provision made to prioritise front-line services or was it just the case that recruitment generally would be opened up? Could Mr. Bell indicate what happened? It appears there was an over-abundance of administrative staff as opposed to front-line staff. All staff are important because they all have a part to play in the delivery of services. Was nothing done in the health service to prioritise front-line staff? In a bakery, for example, the baker has to work. Was anything done to ring-fence the need for front-line staff when recruitment opened up?