Dr. Amanda Burke:

Again, in my own area, we sometimes struggle more with health and social care professional posts. We are possibly competing with other agencies where there has been an expansion, for example, there are other posts coming into primary care and disability services, so there is a lot of competition for posts. It can sometimes be slow to recruit there.

We are in the west of Ireland and we do not have as much of a problem with consultant psychiatrists at the moment compared to some other areas. Consultant recruitment is an international problem and it is not peculiar to Ireland, but there are particular areas of Ireland where we have a dearth of psychiatrists.

The Deputy mentioned nursing, in particular in regard to the east of the country, and I think that has to do the cost of living.