Mr. Joseph Musgrave:

I thank the Deputy. We have records of four CHOs that commonly pay travel expenses, that is, mileage. These are: CHO 2, Galway; CHO 4, Cork; CHO 5, Wexford-Waterford; and CHO 8, Laois-Offaly-Louth. Of the nine CHOs in the country, only four have a record of consistently paying mileage. In other CHOs, it is discretionary. Our members tend to pay an additional supplement to workers to work on weekends and to work unsocial hours to incentivise them and to get as much care to people as possible. The main impediment to continuing that level of service is a simple inability to recruit enough staff. Every group has enumerated the issues we have had with that.