Mr. John Dunne:

The Senator asked a question about the embargo - the recruitment freeze - and what it is stopping. While a lot of things in the pipeline have been delayed or stopped, it is not necessarily helpful to look at the recruitment freeze in that way. If we are simply going to turn around and say we need to hire all these extra people, there is something in the management of the health service and, therefore, for the Oireachtas Committee on Health, about how current resources are used and being able to reallocate and reprofile resources. While it is a crude mechanism, the recruitment freeze is part of a stage in that process. Not to lose sight of what is being delayed and prevented but the core issue is not about new services. It is about existing resources, from where I am sitting. I would not dream of just adding to our resources and accreting extra stuff.

Every time we get a new block of resources, we review everything we do and see how we can reorganise it to make it more efficient. That has not been the way the health service has worked and I think it should start working that way.