Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Sullivan. Could I ask Ms Magahy a follow-up question to what the previous speaker mentioned regarding nurses? Is there any detailed analysis from this year of the payroll cost of agency nurses versus those directly on the HSE payroll? It seems to me or to anyone who visits a hospital that if one gets into a detailed conversation with nurses, one still encounters a lot of agency nurses and yet the need for hospitals to be staffed to a high level has not gone away. If anything, it has increased significantly since the arrival of Covid. Is there any cost of agency nurses versus nurses on the HSE payroll and is there a strategy to get more nurses onto the HSE payroll so that the cost of agency nurses is diminished?