David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome all the witnesses. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in relation to the pay and numbers strategy and the embargo that we just had for the best part of a year, including what we call it. We call it a recruitment embargo and the HSE wants to call it a temporary freeze. We have had all this messing for the best part of a year. What we can say for a fact is that there has been a hard break on recruitment, with very few exceptions. Very limited recruitment is happening at the moment because of the staff ceiling based on the pay and numbers strategy. It is 2,200 for this year. The hard break is there and it is having an impact.

The smoke and mirrors continues in what the HSE says about the additional headcount in place. Could Ms Ní Sheaghdha respond to the following question based on what she referred to in her previous reply? When the HSE talks about additional nursing posts, are they based on a 35-hour week or a 37.5-hour week? Are we essentially seeing a massaging of the figures from the HSE because it is using hours that are not relevant? Could she respond to that point first?