Dr. Roy Browne:

There is an element of that in half of the posts. The other part is that when we get the permanent posts through, they go to the Public Appointments Service. I sit on the interview board with all of the various people. One person turns up and they are either suitable or not suitable. Therefore, there is also a problem with attracting them to come back to work in a system which they regard as toxic. It is something nobody likes saying about a system in which they work but, as time has passed, many of us feel it is a toxic system that at times tries to diminish the amount of work we can do. I was struck by the mixed messages from the HSE coming up to the snow event. Staff members were told that if they could not get into work, they would not be paid but then two days later, the message was that it would try to give staff a bedroom because it realised that it could not get any staff to come in and work. Four of my nursing colleagues spent three days in a hotel room coming back into work on shifts every night. Thank goodness they did so because otherwise we would have had probably one nurse looking after a group of 15 patients who were all extremely unwell.