Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Since the Croke Park agreement was signed everyone has been aware there was going to be a very significant reduction in the number of people working in the public sector. The key part of the agreement and the commitments made by the Taoiseach, as leader of a party, and the Tánaiste were that front line public services would be maintained irrespective of the numbers that would be reduced. We know 29 February is the closing date for applications for the early retirement scheme and February was always going to be the month when the majority of staff were going to leave.

While that, in itself, is not a surprise, the lack of a detailed plan on how to deal with this exodus is now a major and astounding reality. According to the latest figures, approximately 8,000 public service workers are expected to leave, with health and education making up the bulk of those retirements in addition to hundreds in the Garda and the Defence Forces. We know arrangements were being made in the education sector, with teachers being retained on lower pay scales. We know consultant-led services will be lost in the health arena, including consultants in the area of midwifery. Specialist nurses, public health nurses and staff nurses are retiring, and they will not be retained even where replacements are not available in essential fields of activity.

We know from Professor Michael Turner, the director of the HSE's obstetrics and gynaecology programme, that staff reductions will see an increase in Ireland's maternal and infant mortality rates. To that must be added the comments of consultant obstetrician Dr. Gerry Burke in Limerick, who made even starker statements that people, including women, will pay with their lives.

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