Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to jump in on the latter point regarding leave. How many members of the witnesses' organisations have used up all of their leave entitlement? How many have no annual leave left? What are they doing to manage that? Let me know if I am wrong, but it strikes me that once healthcare workers and other staff have used up their annual leave and are taking parental leave or looking at unpaid leave, the reality is that many of them will have no leave left for the rest of the year. It is not just a question of leaving children at home, they may be forced to give up their jobs in order to maintain decent childcare. This is putting massive further undue pressure on the health service. How many the workers have used up their leave entitlement? If nothing changes, what do those workers plan to do when all of their leave has been used up?