Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Donnelly for his presentation and I thank the delegation for its time and for coming here today. These hearings on workforce planning were kicked off by the committee's serious concern about the lack of workforce planning for nurses and midwives, consultants, and many of the other healthcare professionals whom Fórsa represent. Mr. Donnelly has gone through some areas. I will ask him a broad question to begin with. For the sake of the workers Fórsa represents and the services they provide, we need to see proper multiannual workforce planning. We should know how many people we need at particular grades, with particular skill sets, and in different services in different parts of the country. We should be accounting for maternity leave, training, and mobility around the country. We should be treating our staff very well so that our retention rates would be high. The HSE should be a fantastic place to work because, first and foremost, that would provide the best outcomes for patients and, secondly but also extremely importantly, because everyone should a have decent workplace. That is the ideal. Some countries are good at it and some are not. Some parts of the public sector are good at it and some are not.

Some companies are good at it and some are not. With respect to the people Fórsa represents and the services they provide, can Mr. Donnelly broadly indicate how it is going? He has addressed some specific issues. Are there parts of the HSE or sections 38 and 39 organisations to which he could point and say that group is really good? He need not name particular groups but are there parts of the HSE or some of those organisations that are particularly bad, be it by geography or service?