Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Those figures do not tally with the figures in the table that has been put out and the table that was used in the plan for living with Covid. That is why we need up-to-date accurate figures. The figures do not tally as of now and it is important that we have accuracy.

Previous speakers referred to our meeting a few weeks ago with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association. All three organisations spoke of the crisis in recruitment and retention. That crisis existed before Covid ever appeared and the pressures of Covid have hugely exacerbated it. There are already a lot of data. The Health Research Board has done a review of the reasons hospital doctors leave. The Medical Council did a review. The framework for safe nurse staffing also sets out a number of reasons. Why does the service plan not contain a major recruitment and retention strategy that is funded? Will the Minister commit to producing such a strategy given the urgency of the situation?