Ms Rachel Kenna:

Retention is a big feature of our overall workforce planning. To summarise, and I would be happy to provide a more detailed note on this, for NCHDs, the task force that concluded last year made a significant number of recommendations. We have already seen improvements in induction programmes and the facilities within all of the hospitals for on-call, training and development, as well as space for NCHDs doing longer hours. There is a commitment to a reduction under the European working time directive, which has always been feedback from the doctors themselves. There are significant recommendations around training, education and improvements in simulation for doctors who are being progressed. As I said, we can provide a detailed note on that.

From a nursing perspective, we have the safe staffing framework, which has had significant benefits and has shown through evidence that there is better retention for areas that have fully implemented the safe staffing framework. In addition, we are part of the European Nursing Action, which has a strong focus on the retention of nurses across the European region.

Migration is a feature of our workforce in Ireland and will remain so, given our dependence on an internationally trained workforce. However, we are beginning to look at circular migration. What we are seeing is that while new medical interns and nursing graduates are migrating to countries like Australia, they are coming back into the workforce between three and five years later, which is significant for us. When we get better data on that, we will see the improvements.