Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

The main reason right now that we cannot recruit is because there is a cap. The HSE imposed a cap on recruitment. The two directors of nursing who are here with me today do not have permission to recruit. They must go through at least four layers above them to get permission to put the advertisement in. If the Deputy is asking what is the main issue, I would say simply it is the cap and not giving the front-line clinicians who know where the gaps and vacancies are permission to recruit. That has become a bureaucratic nightmare. It takes about six months to get through that process. For example, if I know that ten of my staff will retire and they notify me a month in advance, I cannot advertise until I get permission but I cannot start asking for permission until they are actually gone. It is designed to delay recruitment.

We made the point earlier that the population growth in Ireland has significantly increased the demand for our health service but our staffing numbers are not meeting the demand. It is not that they have recruited more staff than they should have recruited but, rather, the demand required that number to be recruited-----