Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have to be careful about what I say because there is nothing in place with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Anything of that nature would have to be done by means of a public sector pay agreement. Broadly speaking, there have never been more people in the HSE. I know we talk about a recruitment crisis but, in fact, we have just had three years in a row of record recruitment. At an all-of-system level, there absolutely is not a recruitment crisis, but parts of the system really struggle. One of those parts is that relating to children's disability services. Clinicians say to me that complex children's services are more difficult to work in. There is precedence for an additional payment being paid to emergency department nurses because emergency departments are simply harder places to work. Working in an emergency department takes a greater toll. There is an argument to be made for those who work in the more difficult areas. These are the areas, like complex children's services, that the clinicians say are more difficult and in respect of which additional remuneration could be looked at. I reiterate that can only be done after an awful lot of consultation with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and as part of a public sector pay agreement.