Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would point out that 4,000 nurses have not resigned. Rather, the number of nursing posts has been reduced, which is not quite the same thing. Between 2008 and 2013, the number of nursing posts reduced by approximately 5,000 but this is offset in large part by the fact that nurses work additional hours under the Haddington Road agreement and also by the graduate nursing programme. However, in 2014 the number nurses employed by the HSE increased by 500. We are now starting to increase the number of nurses working in our public health system. This is in addition to the fact that we now have record numbers of midwives and more consultants than ever before. It is important to put all of the facts in the public domain. The only thing that is better than the truth is the whole truth.

If this was a simple problem it would have been solved a long time ago. The difficulties vary from hospital to hospital. The fact that the work to rule will take place in seven hospitals and not all 28 or 40 facilities indicates that there are particular problems in some hospitals. In some hospitals difficulties arise because of late discharges, either because there is no funding available for the fair deal scheme or, as in the case of the Beaumont-Louth area, there are no nursing homes. What is required is different sets of solutions, a national approach and particular approaches in particular hospitals. That is what the emergency departmental task force is all about.

See this speech in context