Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is quite unsatisfactory, if that arrangement had been made. The other thing, of course, is that we will have to have the HSE and the CEO back before the committee because very clear commitments were given to us this time last year. We took those commitments in good faith and they are not happening now. It is really disappointing. Apart from the rights of people with neurological conditions, this is a no-brainer in terms of investment and the return the HSE would get on investment and, indeed, the return society would get too, which would enable people to go back to work and live fuller lives and so on. We will pursue that very soon.

I will start with the specialist nurses. I was recently at a presentation by the Parkinson's society. It outlined the enormous difference it makes for people living with Parkinson's disease to have access to a specialist nurse. It transforms their lives. It is very hard to see any excuse for not going ahead with the recommendation of 100 specialist nurses. The recommendation for 100 comes from the model of care, is that right? Yes. Twenty-one were recommended and funded in budget 2022. We are now in the middle of 2024. Those posts were funded long before the recruitment embargo. How did they get caught up in the recruitment embargo? Why were the posts not filled? Was there a particular reason? Will the witnesses talk about that?