Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I have a question for Ms Ní Sheaghdha about the increase in beds and the nurses required for staffing. Is the funding made available in the course of the summer and budget 2021 sufficient to meet the challenges of recruitment etc.? Regarding the increase in the number of undergraduates, we are getting applicants from India and the Philippines. What is the ratio of students from Ireland compared with non-EU countries? We addressed retention of health staff at all levels in this committee in the last Dáil. It appears to be getting more difficult. If so, are prevailing conditions the cause of the problem? Is any part of it the fact that highly qualified medical staff have the world as their oyster on the world market at present and that we have to recruit against colleagues throughout the world?

Anybody and everybody can answer this last question. What are the witnesses' views on the extent to which the health services are meeting the challenges which have appeared on the horizon over the past six months? Do they think it can continue? Everybody criticises the services for their inadequacies and inability to deal with growing numbers. At the same time, if everybody throughout the country co-operated and carried out what we should with regard to correction of our interactions with other people and stopping the spread of the virus, I believe that it would make a significant impact on the workload and levels of stress caused in the health services. The witnesses can comment on that if they wish.