Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As of today, over the past three years, 972 fully trained Irish doctors - our best and our brightest - have left these shores and been granted visas to work in Australia. We talk about beds, trolleys, building capacity and new hospital blocks but what I heard repeatedly from staff over the Christmas period is that the physical environment in which care is provided is one issue. It is a crisis in itself and the roll-out of hospital wings takes time. However, they said no matter how much is provided for in the physical environment, if there are not enough staff, the level of care cannot be provided. Staff become unwell. They are also susceptible to Covid-19 and all of the other viruses that are circulating. The staff cannot sustain this. While it is not ideal and no one wants to do this, is it time that our nurses and doctors be mandated after graduating from medical and nursing school, to stay here? I do not want a stick approach. I want more of a carrot approach. There was a time when they graduated that they were located on the hospital campus. There was a nurses' home where meals and accommodation were subsidised. Now they are put to the pins of their collars. They do not want to stay here because the conditions are not right. Should they be required to remain here to build the HR capacity in order to provide care?