Joan Freeman (Independent)
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I welcome the deputations to the meeting. From the HSE we have Ms Rosarii Mannion, national director of human resources, and Ms Eithne Fox, assistant national director, national recruitment service. From the Public Appointments Service we have Ms Fiona Tierney, chief executive officer, and Ms Margaret McCabe, head of recruitment. From the Psychiatric Nurses Association we are joined by Mr. Peter Hughes, general secretary, and Ms Aisling Culhane. From the Irish Hospital Consultants Association we are joined by Dr. Donal O'Hanlon, vice president, and Dr. Kieran Moore. On behalf of the committee I thank you for your attendance today. You will be invited to make a brief opening statement. This will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

I wish to draw the attention of our witnesses to the situation on privilege. Please note that witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they give to the committee. However, if witnesses are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence.

They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Members should be aware that under the salient rulings of the Chair they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses, or an official either by name in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I remind members and witnesses to turn off their mobile phones or switch them to airplane mode because they interfere with the sound system. I advise witnesses that any submission or opening statement made to the committee will be published on the committee website after this meeting.

Before I invite witnesses to make their opening statements, I remind members and witnesses that the purpose of today's meeting is to have a discussion on the processes involved in recruiting clinicians for mental health services. We are all aware of the challenges and the aim of this meeting is to explore options for simplifying the process to make recruiting clinicians more efficient and effective. We have had a couple of submissions that have not answered what we have asked for. We know what the problems are and what we are trying to do at this meeting is to explore options for simplifying the whole process.

I invite each of the witnesses to make an opening statement. We will start with Ms Rosarii Mannion of the HSE.