David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I am going to move on to the next issue. One of the reasons for the additional asks this year is an increase in agency spend. It is estimated that agency spend might climb to €800 million this year. This committee has been putting a focus on this year on year, yet what we are seeing is increases, as was raised by the previous speaker. I gave the Minister some examples closer to home of nurses who are on panels waiting to be recruited, often for months on end. They want to work in public hospitals and cannot get contracts. Nurses have been told by hospitals to register with an agency because the hospitals cannot hire them. They register with an agency. We are paying a premium of 30% for every one of those nurses who are working through agency. Many of them want to work part time, full time or whatever and they cannot get contracts. Why is it the case, if we have nurses and staff that are ready to work in the health service, we are seeing this increase in agency spend? On a related question, how many recruitment panels are in existence? How many staff or applicants on those panels are waiting to be recruited into the public system?