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

I said we appointed one urologist already and another will start next month. In view of the growing population and the fact that there will be more older men every year for the next 20 years or 30 years - I will get there at some point - we will need to increase the number of urologists every year. It may well be the case that we need to double the number of urologists in the next five to ten years. It is not an easy thing to do. It costs money. We need to be competitive with other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Canada and America, which is the reason it is important that people do not vote for candidates who would impose high taxes on people who we are trying to recruit back home. That is why it is very much in the interests of people in Waterford who may have a cancer diagnosis that they do not vote for Deputy Halligan's politics at the next election. That is very important. It is not just consultants who are hard to recruit, we are also having difficulty recruiting theatre nurses. There is theatre space in Waterford but it is difficult to recruit theatre nurses as well. We are embarking on a campaign overseas and in the UK over the summer to try to improve the situation.

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