Mr. Paul Bell:

I share that view quite strongly. We do not believe we have recovered from previous staff moratoriums. I will defer to my colleagues here who have more direct experience in this area. In the past, the HSE would have said that it needed to enforce a recruitment embargo or moratorium - it does not matter which language we use to describe it - but that is no longer the practice. In many cases, people have applied for posts on foot of competitions that were advertised and have been deemed to be successful, only to be advised subsequently that there is no starting date for them. Such cases can drag on for a number of months or a year. In some cases, the successful candidate has moved elsewhere by the time the post comes to be filled. In such circumstances, a very skilled person will have been lost.