Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The moratorium on recruitment and promotion had to be introduced as a matter of necessity. It was introduced at the end of March 2009. It allows for certain general exemptions in the education and health sectors to fill certain key posts, as well in the local authorities in respect of fire, health and safety, INTERREG and other posts. The information in respect of posts covered by these general exemptions can be sought from the relevant Ministers.

On the question raised by the Deputy, the whole purpose of the Croke Park agreement is to see in what way we can get redeployment and find a way forward that will provide us with as many permanent staff as possible. There are some occasions when temporary agency people are required. One would like to think that they would never be required, but there are situations in which they are required. The availability of labour is not equal in all cases. An agency nurse might be required in one area whereas an exception to the moratorium might be more of a solution in another area.

I am not aware of the PNA-specific matter to which the Deputy referred. The service available to psychiatric patients is different to the one that was available in an institutional setting. It is not necessary that all people who interact with psychiatric patients in the modern care setting be psychiatric nurses. Many of the day-to-day needs of psychiatric patients are provided by care workers and others who are quite capable of doing that job. While there is a nursing care element to this, it is not the exclusive case now that may have been the case in the past in terms of the way in which services were organised and who cared for people.

See this speech in context