Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their work over the past two years in very difficult times. I refer to figures for community care and public nursing jobs. I have raised this previously. I note that the exit figures out of the HSE were 3,722 to December 2022. I presume the exits out of community services are part of this 3,722. That figure is 3,305. Has any real analysis been done as to why there is that level of exit by people from the community services?

We still are not making any significant progress on nurses working out in the community, although I know there are plans for this year. I have raised the fact we will have a far larger elderly population, which is increasing as we speak and will increase dramatically in the next eight years. I am not sure whether we are doing long-term planning for having more people working in the community. Compared with the figures for December 2014, the real increase in public health nurses has been minimal compared with the increases across all other sectors. I have raised this at previous meetings and will continue to raise it. The HSE might give some idea of the planning on this issue.