Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

I thank the Deputy for that question. In our submission we have set out the figures. Before Covid, we were operating with more than 1,000 fewer nurses and midwives than we had in 2007. We now have a big problem because, as we have set out in the figures, we are very reliant on recruitment of nurses and midwives from non-EU countries. We recruit from EU countries as well, but non-EU countries were our biggest single registration bloc last year. We know that, due to travel restrictions, these nurses and midwives will not travel to Ireland to work here. We also know that the UK has made specific travel arrangements that allow Irish workers to travel to the UK, and the UK is very aggressively recruiting our graduates. We have promised our graduates in nursing and medicine posts on graduation, but they have had that promise for the past three years. It is always a battle, particularly when one has a health service that is funded on an annual basis and then implements a moratorium on recruitment in the first quarter of the year, as it did last year.

The health service denied it and said there was no moratorium but there was one. The first thing we have to ensure is that there is no moratorium on essential healthcare workers ever again because when the chips are down we need every single healthcare worker who is available and willing to work in this country. There is no point in asking them to come back from Australia in the middle of a pandemic. They should not be forced to go to Australia in the first place. We have a problem.

We have set out a number of points on this very issue to the parties which are now looking to form a Government and those are: increase undergraduate places; never again introduce a moratorium; and make sure to treat those who work in the public health service, nurses and midwives, in an equitable manner with all other professionally qualified healthcare workers.