Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take the point that the system can be and needs to be improved. We should also acknowledge that in many instances the PAS is finding it difficult to get the candidates. The average figure that the Deputy quotes of over 500 days is not solely down to the system. I acknowledge that there is a need to streamline and improve the system and that is an area of work that the HSE is focused on because I know it has been discussed at the highest level at the Cabinet committee. There is also an international challenge in attracting candidates into different disciplines within healthcare. It is not always the case that there are willing candidates but the system is not quick enough or able to assimilate them. To put the figures in context, at the end of September we had about 130,600 whole-time equivalents in the health service and sanction is in place to increase that to over 141,000. This is a dramatic scale-up in recruitment across the HSE because we recognise that we have to improve the permanent capacity of the healthcare system. We have hired about 11,000 new staff across last year and this year and there is more to go. We will continue to put the resources into this and we will focus on the system to see if there is a way in which we can improve it, while also acknowledging that there is a general problem in attracting candidates to certain posts across the system.