Mr. Michael Walsh:

No, but that is only one incident. I have constantly emailed and phoned. These are the kids in Wexford who need to be looked after.

The commission on nursing was in 1999. Nurses were leaving the country in droves then. Ms Justice Mella Carroll put forward the commission on nursing. That looked at different routes for nurses to take within the profession. Some people went out to management, the clinical nurse manager grades CNM 1, CNM 2 and CNM 3 were developed, there was the clinical nurse specialist and then there were acting nurse practitioners. Acting nurse practitioners are only coming on stream now in psychiatry. I did not wish to be in management and wanted to stay in clinical practice. Becoming a clinical nurse specialist allowed me to stay in clinical practice.