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

I will ask about the staffing issue and the challenges we currently have in relation to it. In some areas we are having difficulty getting psychiatrists and doctors, but have we a sufficient number of places for the training of people in, say, psychiatric nursing and related areas? Are we producing enough graduates in those areas if we are to plan for the future? In particular, we need to look at the number of people retiring from the service, whether they are doctors, nurses, care assistants or staff on the administration side. Has any analysis been done on the challenges we will face on that over the next five years?