Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Can the witnesses give me a picture of the agency costs? We know about this. We have been through it many times before. We need to identify the extra costs involved in providing doctors, nursing staff and general hospital staff through agencies. Why should this be? Why do hospitals rely on agency staff? The staff must be there. Why not make them permanent staff of the hospitals? They are in the country. They are not in Australia. We are not going to depend on agency staff from Australia in any event, unless they come home. What is the difference in respect of cost? Why have we traditionally relied so heavily on agency staff?