Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

We dispute that. The whole-time equivalent on the census tells us how many nurses and midwives there are, based on the whole-time equivalent calculator. It is 47,584, but some of that figure is made up, for example, of more than 918 who are student nurses in training, so they were not recruited. Some 417 nurses transferred in when the status of section 39 hospices changed to section 38, so they were also not recruited. Then the recalibration of the hours is about 1,700, so that is not recruitment. What we dispute is when the HSE says it has recruited, because it has not. It has recruited about 540 in that period.

The problem we have is that we raised this in the WRC prior to the pay and numbers strategy and the WRC offered the HSE five separate dates since and it has not been available. That is the reason we are forced to come into a public arena such as this and make the point that the pay and numbers strategy is affecting our ability to provide safe care because it is based on a number that is not correct for nursing and midwifery. We have a scientific tool – the framework on nurse staffing and skill mix – that determines how many nurses and healthcare assistants we should have to provide safe care in all surgical and medical areas and in emergency departments. We are not meeting the safety measurement in any of those locations.