Ms Mary O'Kelly:

We cannot guarantee that. We do not like to be in this position at all. Mr. Ryan spoke very well about the increase in the number of higher education institution, HEI, places for psychiatric nurses. We are being as creative as possible in this area. We absolutely acknowledge we are having difficulty recruiting across the CHO area and not just in mental health. People are interested in working and willing to work, we have excellent services, and they want to come to work in those services, but they are unable to afford to live or rent in the area.

We have staff driving from the midlands and west and that is unsustainable. They are all the matters we are looking at organisationally. As Paul Reid mentioned in his interview on Sunday, there is a lot being looked at nationally in terms of facilitating staff to work in the areas they would like to but cannot afford to work in.