Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I am glad she did not read out the written reply; she was quite right not to. I commend her on her engagement with this issue and the previous one. I will stray for one second. The Minister of State, to be fair, intervened in the cystic fibrosis issue in Cork University Hospital and I commend her on that intervention. She did not have to intervene but she did and she got people together, and for that I praise her. I hope she does the same with this matter.

In her reply, the Minister of State speaks common sense. Notwithstanding issues in terms of completion of documentation, which I accept exist, it is becoming too commonplace for this to be trotted out as an excuse. I have met people from the private hospital, acute hospital and nursing home sectors. I have met nurses themselves. Today I met a ward sister in Cork University Hospital who told me of the issue she faced. People are losing out on promotions because of the registration process. We need to resolve this issue and much of it is in our own hands. We can easily solve some of the challenges in the health care sector and I contend this is one of them.

This is about ensuring people are compliant and registered properly. While I accept that, I have a concern about the adaptation courses, particularly in the nursing home sector. I hope we can expedite the application process and that it can be done in a more timely manner. I am acutely aware of the issues and the hurdles to be overcome but if we want to see groundhog day, we need only sit back and do nothing, which is why the committee is bringing in the chief executive. It is not to have an adversarial engagement but rather a meaningful one through which we can find a resolution. This is otherwise a good news story in the health system - we are recruiting people - but as a result of some type of bureaucracy and red tape, we cannot recruit them and get them into jobs. That is surely what we must be about. I hope we can bring a resolution to this issue. I thank the Minister of State for her common-sense reply and praise her for her involvement in the process.

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