Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Government is fully committed to job creation and ironing out the red tape that prevents employers from taking on staff, yet at the moment there are 300 vacancies in the private sector nursing homes across Ireland largely due to the delays experienced in registering nurses with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

This issue has been raised with me on a number of occasions, particularly by nursing home owners in County Galway, who struggle to replace nurses when they leave. Currently, there are nursing home beds in County Galway that are closed awaiting the registration of nurses.

Nursing home beds in County Galway have been withdrawn from service as the homes await the registration of nurses. This delay in registering nurses has knock-on effects, including the possibility that further nursing home beds will be withdrawn, leading to difficulties in discharging patients from acute settings and placing pressure on accident and emergency departments. The lack of registered nurses means that many owners of nursing homes must use recruitment agencies or engage directly in recruiting nurses internationally. This creates a significant cost burden for nursing home owners, who, in addition to experiencing difficulties in registering nurses, face costs of between €8,000 and €10,000.

The current waiting time is listed as 90 days. Up to 700 applications are before the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, awaiting processing. If a query is raised about an application, as is common for applications from foreign-registered nurses, the application is placed at the bottom of the list and the nurse in question may not be registered for 90 days, six months or 12 months. This is a bureaucratic nightmare. Nursing home owners have informed me that it is very unusual for foreign-registered nurses to have registrations successfully concluded within 90 days. Six months is too long for any business to have to wait for registration. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland will cite a lack of resources as the reason for delays in the registration process. I also note that the board failed in its attempt to have the nurse registration fee increased by 50%. The current impasse and the delays experienced by nurses and nursing home owners must be addressed.

Rigorous procedures for the registration of nurses are necessary, and I do not propose any relaxation in current procedures. However, faster turnaround times for registration are required, and if additional resources are required, they must be found. Approximately 300 vacant posts could be filled and the additional taxes that would result could be used to offset any additional resources needed.

The lack of available nurses in Ireland is resulting in ever-increasing recruitment and retention costs for nursing homes. Nursing homes in rural areas are at a particular disadvantage because it is assumed that they have lower costs, and this assumption is reflected in the much lower fees they are allowed to charge by the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The fees paid to many nursing homes in rural areas have remained static for the past five years, during which time the crisis in nurse recruitment has greatly increased the cost of recruitment and resulted in offers of ever-increasing salary packages in an effort to retain qualified registered nurses.

The Government has adopted a common-sense approach to job creation. The current delays being experienced in nurse registration could be addressed through simple action that would allow 300 vacant posts to be filled and remove a bottleneck in the health system. I look forward to the Minister's response.

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