Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

I thank the Deputy. The HSE's figures are based on a whole-time equivalent. It also gives a people number that makes up the whole-time equivalent. For example, at the moment, it says in August 2024 there are 47,584 whole-time equivalents in 37.5-hour nursing posts, with a headcount of 53,538. The point we make is that in 2022, when the hours changed, and specific funding was made available - €150 million was negotiated as part of the public service agreement, to backfill the hours – the HSE's whole-time equivalent calibration did not take that into account.

In other words, today you had a whole-time equivalent worth 39 hours, and tomorrow that same whole-time equivalent was worth 37.5. There are 1.5 hours for every single whole-time equivalent in the system that then had to be funded differently, in our view-----