Ms Laura Magahy:

"Yes" and "Yes" is the short answer. An analysis has been carried out by the HSE of its budget. The barrier to full-time recruitment is the knowledge that ongoing funding would be required for the posts. Going back to the detail of today's budget, there is a commitment to many thousands of ongoing posts on a permanent basis, which should obviate the need for agency staff in a significant way. It is good news that we are now able to recruit more permanent staff and to invest in the public system.

When we hear about beds being funded, we are talking about the staff. It is the staff who are being funded, not the beds. The beds come from the capital plan. The issue is the staffing of those beds. As we are aware, in intensive care units, ICUs, a five-time ratio is needed in order to provide full-time care for a patient. That is a massive investment in nursing staff and in other healthcare professionals in hospitals and in the community. Whether it is community beds, hospital beds, ICU beds, residential beds or neurorehabilitation beds, the big cost is not the beds, it is the staff. What is in the budget today will allow us to plan on a multi-year basis and not just fund things on a temporary basis. Traditionally, when we fund services for winter, which is a bizarre concept anyway, we have been turning services on and then turning them off. One cannot hire people on that basis because they cannot commit and hospitals cannot commit to the training and the ongoing service. When full-time funding is given for these positions it will reduce the need for agency staff and will put in place the permanent workforce that is needed.