Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his statement. It is quite comprehensive, to say the least. Obviously, funding and resourcing our public health service is welcome. Over the past two years, it has been challenged like never before.

It has risen to that challenge, particularly the front-line staff, who have come under the barrage of a virus that we are hopefully seeing recede into the background. There are a lot of positives to be taken from the last two years, particularly around the vaccination programme. The vaccination programme was probably the biggest success the Irish health service has had since the foundation of the State. It was a gargantuan undertaking and a huge number of people helped in that process. We pulled together as a country and it was a fantastic effort that showed what can be done in public health.

I have a number of questions on the recruitment of 10,000 staff. This has been flagged before and over half of the 10,000 people we need in our public health service have been recruited. There are many factors in trying to employ staff, which I will not go through. There are different spokes to employing staff. I ask for short answers to these questions if possible. What is the breakdown of the recruitment of these additional staff into general health and mental health areas?