Ms Anne O'Connor:

It is interesting that, in regard to public health nurses and community nurses, there was a conference recently involving community health nurses who represented many in the public health nursing community. There were some very active individuals involved in the conference from north Lee in Cork. Their most consistent request was for more administrative support because they believed so much of their time was devoted to administrative tasks, thereby preventing them from doing other work. There is a balance to be struck. Some clinicians in the community argue that they spend a lot of their time performing administrative duties. They would prefer to be using their high-end clinical skills. It was an interesting debate at the conference and we are going to look into the matter in more detail.