Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want go back to the cancer services and how they are coping with the new challenges. What kind of numbers do we need to be able to deal with these new challenges in staffing numbers? Have we looked at what we need in that area and where we can recruit staff from? One of the other issues we have with healthcare is that while everyone is talking about the numbers of people we have in the system, no one is looking at the numbers of people who will be retiring out of the system over the next three to four years, which is also something that needs to be looked at. I am not sure if we have any figures from the HSE on the numbers of people who are retiring out, including nurses, care assistants and consultants.