Mr. Peter McLoone:

Mobility is a feature of nursing and medicine now that was not as important when I was a nurse many years ago. When we looked at the period from the lifting of the embargo on recruitment, it was noticeable that it was underpinned by quite a number of initiatives that were taken by the HSE and employers generally to try to attract nurses to come and work in their services. We are depending on the domestic market and are also taking people from abroad. Australia, Canada and the United States are coming to Ireland to attempt to attract medical and nursing staff away from the Irish health services to work in their jurisdictions. This is why we strongly recommended the idea of a workforce plan that is funded. Such a plan has not been in place before. We have evidence that an initiative was taken in 2017 with general nurses and midwives involving an oversight group which achieved approximately 80% of the target it set itself. Our view is that something similar should be developed nationally and funded for three years so that there is certainty about it, but it should also apply to intellectual disability, mental health and other areas and should not focus exclusively on general nursing or midwifery. That is not to say that general nursing and midwifery are unimportant, but the plan should address all needs and all areas of the health sector.

We should not hold our breath and wait to see if the situation gets worse. We should recognise that plans have to be put in place now to ensure that not alone will the trend of recruitment and retention improve but that we have plans in place to ensure that the needs of citizens will be met in the future. If the ambitions of Sláintecare are to be achieved, it seems to us that these measures should be taken now.