Mr. Peter Hughes:

No. There were 1,700. They were going to emigrate and were looking for verification of their registration so they could do so.

We are finding that some young graduates are leaving early and some are staying for a year or so and then moving abroad. A key element is the pay. If the issue of nurses' pay is not addressed by the commission, circumstances will continue to get worse. We will not get back the people who have emigrated unless we change the pay and conditions. There is a double-edged sword in that we need the staff to provide the services to make the workplace better but we are not retaining them. Despite what Ms Mannion says about graduates being offered permanent contracts, which is acknowledged, the take-up is not as good as it might be. If positions are taken up, they are taken up for a short period. As I pointed out with regard to retirements due and the development of services, we just do not have enough staff at present. The frustration associated with the recruitment process does not help matters either. I refer to all the steps when one goes for a higher-grade post.

The CAMH services seem to be particularly affected. Many of the young graduates go to work in those services but do not stay. We saw last year in Linn Dara, Cherry Orchard, that the service closed for the whole of the summer because 50% of the nurses were gone. They needed 34 nurses. They had only 17 and half the beds had to be closed down. We are not sure about how this will develop but it is correct that the service providers are waiting for the graduates to come out in October. At present, there is firefighting to keep the beds open. Agency overtime is just not sustainable. There will be extra CAMH service beds in the new children’s hospital. They need to be staffed. The move of the forensic service to Portrane will require 74 extra beds. At the moment, there is difficulty maintaining the staffing level in the Central Mental Hospital.

We are in a crisis. We are moving into a major crisis. The issue needs to be addressed in a number of areas. Nurses' pay will have to be addressed through the pay commission. If it is not, an autumn of discontent might be better than a winter of one, or might be more accurate.