Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The 890 posts that were provided to develop our mental health services in 2012 and 2013 are indisputable facts. Those people are in their posts. The Deputy will know that I take a very clear view of the world. These people's salaries have to be paid, and they are salaries commensurate with the professionalism of those staff and the very specific jobs they are doing. How does the Deputy suppose their salaries are being paid?

There are particular areas where we have a difficulty in recruiting people. As I said, we will recruit an additional 250 to 280 staff in 2014. In my first year in office we recruited 414 staff, of whom 96% are in post. There is a difficulty in filling the remainder simply because qualified persons are not available, but we continue the process. The Deputy's problem is that he is reluctant to allow the facts to get in the way of the story.

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