Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the Minister about the recruitment embargo and its impact right now on UHL. Being a former trade union official, I have spoken to my colleagues in the union movement representing the workers in that hospital. They have told me that as recently as four weeks ago there was a deficit of 200 nurses there. They have told me that right now, there is a deficit of 24 people in catering, seven porters and 14 hygiene staff, all of whom are absolutely essential. They told me that the impact of the embargo is that there is a very slow derogation process because everything has to be run through not just the HSE's local chief officers or the regional executive officers but the CEO himself, Mr. Gloster. It is taking months for these decisions to be made and this is further impacting, right now, on the already existing crisis. In case anyone is in any doubt, by the time this week is over we will have had 10,000 patients on trolleys in the year to date. It is getting worse again this year. I ask the Minister, therefore, to talk to me about the recruitment embargo and what steps he is undertaking to lift it. I ask this because the other point here is that we have people being hired on temporary contracts rather than for proper full-time jobs.

My final question is crucial because the Minister mentioned a 96-bed unit. I had confirmation today that no recruitment has yet been sanctioned for this unit. When we consider it takes six to nine months to hire essential staff like nurses, this means that in practice, this 96-bed unit will not open in the first quarter of next year because the recruitment process has not even been sanctioned yet.