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

Pay restoration and reductions in tax and USC which I hope the Deputy's party will not oppose will also be of assistance. It has also been necessary to significantly increase the number of non-consultant hospital doctors in hospitals to support service delivery and progress compliance with the European working time directive. The number of non-consultant hospital doctors which has increased by 800 since the Government took office in March 2011 and by over 100 in the past 12 months now stands at 5,500, the highest ever number. The number of doctors now registered with the Medical Council is 19,000, the highest in ten years. Again, this is not PR spin or a grand plan. These are just the facts and the Deputy should know them.

The number of nursing vacancies has been particularly challenging, but, again, progress is being made. An extra 580 full-time equivalent nurses and midwives have been employed since August 2014. The number of midwives employed in Ireland is at its highest ever. The HSE has launched a new international nurse recruitment project to fill posts. It is hoped to attract nurses and midwives working in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to return to Ireland to work in nursing and midwifery posts in hospitals across a number of disciplines.

On nursing and midwifery registration, almost 1,000 applicants, some 459 of whom are Irish-trained, have been registered this year. This is the highest such figure in many years. The number of applications this year has also increased. Up to the end of August, the number of nurses and midwives wishing to register in Ireland had increased by 122%. A new helpline is being set up to assist people with their applications and deal with registration queries. From a longer term perspective, a task force on staffing and skill mix for nursing was established in 2014. The main aim of the task force is to stabilise the nursing workforce. It will do this by developing a framework to determine the staffing and skill mix requirements for nursing in general and specialist adult hospital medical and surgical care settings. This is the first phase of the work of the task force. Further phases will build on that key piece of work.

There are big challenges facing us in the health service. That is why we are focused on initiatives and measures which allow more patients to wait less time for treatment, whether they are in an emergency department or at home. This is not just about increasing capacity in hospitals; it is also about ensuring people are treated in the community, where possible, and that there is a close working relationship between hospitals, social and primary care services. Tonight and tomorrow night we will hear Members opposite demanding action, but we will not get many specifics from them.

See this speech in context