Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In fact, sometimes when resources are allocated in an approach where, for example, there is a dietician for everyone in the audience, if you like, when there is a CHO area that is twice the size of some other CHO areas, it is not equality in terms of such delivery.

I want to raise one issue of the kind of pressures the section 39 organisations are under in delivering services regarding staff retention. Are section 39 organisations paying less money for services and staff can then have the option of being recruited directly by the HSE? I am hearing that there is no competition for them. They will not hold onto staff if staff have the option to be employed at a higher salary. Where we are looking at the staff ratio for the HSE, the staff issue is separate but linked to section 39 organisations because of the lack of equivalence.