David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Looking at all of the figures in the opening statement, I reminded myself that there are real people behind them who need access to services. Whether that is the neurological teams in the community or the specialist beds, or the neurological nurses across the counties mentioned, there are people depending on these services. The first issue I raise is the specialist nurse positions. It strikes me as bizarre that, on one hand, the Government would make an announcement to fund these posts but then, on the other, put in place a recruitment embargo and block the implementation of the very posts they funded.

We have been told that the reason for the recruitment embargo is to manage and rein in spending. It is being spun in terms of there being runaway spending, as opposed to money having been allocated. In budgets, money is allocated to certain posts, but hiring is then held up because of an embargo. It makes no sense. We have to call out the madness of the recruitment embargo generally and the impact it is having on patients. We need to follow up on this with Bernard Gloster. When we challenged him on the recruitment embargo, he said that the HSE is still hiring and that some posts were not being held up. We need to get information on that and see whether it can be dealt with because those posts need to be implemented. Do we have a breakdown on the number of posts that have not been filled, in terms of locations?