Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I do not disagree with that at all. I am certainly not suggesting it would be and that is why I referenced the body of work that my Department tends to do with this external review about PhD support students, the consistency of those supports and how they are applied. I accept that 100%. The Senator touched on another issue on which I will not go into too much detail in case I frustrate the Chair, but it is the issue around workforce planning. I will be blunt with this committee and say I am really concerned about this. There have been examples of good practice particularly in recent months. I am really proud of the work my Department, the Department of Health, the HSE and others have done in relation to medicine places. I can sit here this evening and tell the committee there is a funded multiannual plan to increase medicine places over the next number of years. Some 60 extra places went in this September. The deans of the medical schools did great work and I thank them, and the HSE also. All of that is great but I cannot say that exists in many other areas of the public service and that frustrates and worries me. As a Minister for some time, I know that funding initiatives can be announced but if there are not people to roll-out these in terms of the delivery on the ground, it will not make progress with waiting times and lists. I am very passionate about the need to accelerate the engagement with other Government Departments. They need to see this relatively new Department as a resource and properly interlock with it on workforce planning. How many speech and language therapists do we need in Ireland and how many occupational therapists and nurses? It is not only how many we need but how we actually get there together. I am not being critical. I have seen exchanges on health committees where people get tetchy when these issues are raised. This is not criticism of any other Department but we are all public servants here and we need to step up to the plate. We need to properly plan the workforce. I do not intend to become pen pals in terms of correspondence between my Department and others in relation to this issue. It is too serious. We now have settled the question of medicine and I want to praise the Department of Health for its work on that but we need to now do it in relation to health, social care and disability professions. I know the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, is up for this; as is the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. If I continue in this role, a key priority of mine in 2023 will be the whole issue of workforce planning. My Department is now engaging at an official level with a number of Departments on this as well.