Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the mental health budget, there is obviously a huge need in that area but, in respect of capacity, a need to use it and to deliver the services where there appears to be a gap in that. The article stated the additional money sought was reported to be €10 million. The Secretary General underlines in the letter, and seems very clear about it, that the actual sum initially sought by the HSE was €35 million and I believe the final figure was €37 million. The question is whether we have, or if there is, a copy of correspondence from the HSE where the initial sum was €35 million. Perhaps we could look for that from the Department of Health.

As regards the prior adjustment, one of the things when I saw this first in what was being published regarding the €10 million and €100 million is that it raises concerns not that we do not know the figure but that even at that point the Department or the HSE was not in a position to determine whether it was €11 million or €99 million. It seems to be an awful long way apart.

Regarding the recruitment, we need to raise questions with the Department about recruitment and the issue of the budget providing for an extra 10,000. It is the will of the Oireachtas, and the Oireachtas provided the budget. However, we have this situation. Is there a blockage or are there barriers? Is the barrier here simply that the people with the skills are not available? If they are not, the HSE and the Department of Health need to inform the Oireachtas. Members of the Oireachtas need to know if the pipeline of trained staff is not coming through the third level institutions and so forth. We can provide whatever money we wish but if we are unable to fill those positions with the necessary qualifications that is a problem. The Oireachtas and obviously the Government have to take this on board and the measures to address this have to be put in place.

From what we have seen in the last fortnight in some of these revelations, if this is actually the case it would appear to confirm some of the issues many of us have been raising over a period of time now and that we must have more longer-term workforce planning in this country or we will be unable to reform the health service or provide the service. We can supply whatever budget we wish but we will not be able to provide satisfactory services. We should request the Department of Health to explain the challenge further. Mr. Robert Watt mentions discussions between the Department and the HSE, and officials agreed that due to the current challenging recruitment environment 5,500 whole-time equivalents is a more achievable target for 2022. It is worth noting that these recruitment targets are additional whole-time equivalents and do not include the replacement of existing staff who retire and leave during the year. I noted that. However, we need an explanation of the current challenging environment and we should seek that from the Department of Health. Is it that we do not have the trained personnel coming through the institutions? Is it that people who are trained are emigrating very quickly? What percentage of them are emigrating and not taking up posts? Also, is there problem with the posts being offered by the HSE? Are they short-term contracts and is that the reason people choose to emigrate rather than to stay and work in these positions? We will try to get clarity on that.

I call Deputy Devlin.