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

I will move to the issue of numbers in the HSE. The figures I have are up to October of last year. It is about having staff and then making sure they are able to work in the facilities and have access to theatres, wards or whatever. In December 2014, there were 103,028 working in the HSE and, last October, there were 131,000, which is a 27.7% increase. I know we are looking for more staff. However, we have additional staff, but the question is whether they are able to function and access theatres, procedure rooms and so forth. Is enough being done in trying to deal with the staff we have as regards making sure they are able to do all the work they want to do?