Mr. Paul Reid:

I thank the Deputy. I meet section 39 organisations all the time but I was at something throughout Mayo and Galway and the Minister of State's constituency in the past few days. Last night I met a section 39 provider in the area of mental health. I was just referencing the provider was making the point about losing staff or trying to retain staff or maybe staff being cannibalised within the sector. That is a factor. Sometimes we are cannibalising within the HSE and sometimes we are cannibalising across the sector. The Minister of State has touched on this and has brought forward some views through Government channels and that is where those things go. We are experiencing it.

The market at the moment in the health sector is extremely tight. One of the members asked earlier about whether we should go overseas. We have had expos in Manchester and London. We have feet on the street in India trying to recruit in terms of nursing. We are looking at all kinds of innovative ways of doing it but the world market for health sector professionals, especially in this sector, is very significant. On a positive note, I met a significant number in the past 48 hours around the west and north west and we are seeing more people coming back from overseas as well such as speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. They now are seeing full-time contracts coming into the community. We are seeing a lot more people coming back. The fear is always, and the expectation is, that we are losing people overseas but I was pleasantly surprised to see; I met a lot of people who have come back from the UK yesterday and over the past 48 hours. However, pay, which the Deputy touched on, is a factor.