Mr. Robert Watt:

There is no doubt that people would feel under enormous strain and stress when accident and emergency units are overcrowded. Obviously situations where front-line staff who have to deal with the reality of very sick people arriving, and are not able to treat them the way they would like, has a very detrimental effect on such staff. Colleagues in the HSE are closer than myself to the situation but I experienced it myself during that period when I spoke to people in some of the hospitals and know it is a very difficult situation. I have no doubt that the challenges within the health system have an impact on our ability to recruit and retain staff. Surveys have been undertaken, on which Ms Anne Marie Hoey, national director of human resources in the HSE, can elaborate. We have data that shows that people feel burned out and fatigued or find the working conditions very stressful. The challenges we face of retaining staff and problems within the public system are not unique to Ireland. Health systems across the developed world are experiencing the same challenges for a variety of reasons, which are mostly linked to the heavy incidence of respiratory viruses this winter but also the demographic change that we are seeing in the developed world.