David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response and I am hopeful this unit will open soon. There is new information in the Minister's response, namely, that experienced nurses working in the hospital will be transferred to the high dependency unit and that other nurses will then be recruited to fill their positions. I take it from that information that the hospital will be recruiting nurses who may not be as experienced or who are general registered nurses. The country is full of nurses who are unemployed so why is that process taking so long? We are talking about late January or early February before these positions are filled. As this is November, we are talking about another three months.

I do not know what is going on but we have had this false start on more than one occasion. I agree with the Minister that the hospital provides an excellent service and that this additional service will enhance what is in place. It is a shame the ward is available but is not being used. The Minister might find out, if not now then later, the reason it is taking so long to recruit ordinary nurses, and I use the word "ordinary" in a careful way, who are not as experienced, according to what the Minister has just said, to backfill the positions that will allow people move from their current posts to the high dependency unit. What is going on? I may be missing something but I cannot understand why nurses cannot be recruited when there are so many nurses looking for work. A series of interviews started only yesterday. I was led to believe that process was ongoing for months. Somebody must answer questions in that regard because, as I said at the outset, this is a matter of life and death for people, and these units make a huge difference. Something is wrong and it is not good enough that it has reached this stage. I know the Minister is committed to this issue. He works very hard on the anti-smoking campaign, which is related to stroke in that we know smoking causes stroke. It is important, therefore, that we get this done as quickly as possible, preferably before Christmas.

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