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

I want to follow up on the point made by Deputy Verona Murphy about permits for people coming in from abroad. There are certain key areas where we have difficulty in filling jobs. I know the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment was involved with the meat industry through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. In the healthcare sector, for example, we have a difficulty in the nursing home care area. Have there been discussions with the Department of Health in dealing with that? I just came in at the end of Deputy Murphy's question so this may have been dealt with. In the private nursing homes, there are about 23,000 residents, so a fairly substantial number of staff are needed.

Quite a number of people who worked in the area have retired for very genuine reasons. The home care area in Cork and Kerry run by the HSE is something for which we cannot bring in people from abroad to deal with and the number of workers in the area has reduced from 1,800 being available to provide home care down to 1,400 in the past 12 months. Therefore, we see challenges in that area. As there are also particular challenges in the nursing home area, what engagement has occurred with the relevant Departments on the matter?