Mr. John McCamley:

As outlined in our submission, we just find progress incredibly slow. That is not unusual for the health service in respect of implementing reports and reviews, and a number of speakers have alluded to that. We certainly have a fear that the slowness in dealing with these issues and the implementation of Sláintecare is having an effect on our members. In preparation for our submission, we spoke to our officials and local representatives across the country. We have reports back from people in the emergency services who are now contemplating just leaving. These are people who have a number of years' experience and who are valuable to the service now saying they will either just leave it entirely for a different career or go abroad.

That is right across the grades, including nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants, radiographers and ambulance staff. It is very frustrating for us, particularly in those areas. The struggles we undertook to get student nurses and midwives something for carrying out clinical placements and proper travel allowances have been alluded to but there are other grades, including radiation therapists and radiographers, who do not receive anything when doing clinical placements. These are areas in which there are chronic shortages. There is going to be an issue with the delivery of radiation therapy because of the lack of radiation therapists who treat cancer patients in the country. That is an area that is going to come to the fore because of the waiting lists and what has happened over the last two years. We are seeking a review into that. A review has been granted but it is progressing incredibly slowly. Among our members, there is a general feeling that there is slowness in trying to develop anything. When we do get an independent report, the implementation of that report is often painfully slow. The main battles relate to the implementation of reports rather than getting reports done. In some cases, as others have indicated, it is very difficult to even get reports agreed. As I have said before, there are definitely issues in respect of morale and burnout. These need to be resolved. We need action from health employers and the Department of Health in that regard.