Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms O'Neill. The issue raised by the two Deputies is the crunch issue, and other Deputies have raised it before. If the HSE cannot come back on this today, I ask it to come back with a schedule of projected recruitment, for want of a better term. I know it takes three or four years to train people, and everybody here would accept that. One of my party colleagues received the population statistics for all of those posts throughout the country, and Ms O'Neill is correct that roughly a third of them are not filled and in some areas it could be up to a half. That is the crux of the matter. The least we expect is that there is a plan. Taking on board what Ms O'Neill said about retirements and people exiting from the services, we need to see a schedule of training and recruitment of people coming through the colleges, but also a note on what the HSE is doing. We could go around on this forever and get nowhere. It is as clear as mud. I ask that we would have that within the next two weeks.