Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The only way hospitals will have respite is, for instance, if various chronic illnesses are treated in primary care centres. That should give us some breathing space. Minor surgeries will be performed in primary care centres more often in 2016 than in 2015. There were 20 in 2015 and the proposal is to have 80 in 2016. There will always be vacancies for nurses, junior doctors and consultants. The difficulty is in attracting people into the system. We had to reduce the number employed and everyone knows why - the economy had collapsed - but we are trying to reverse that trend. There will, however, always be vacancies within acute units and hospitals. People who qualify like to travel, but we are hoping that once they have got the travel bug out of their system, they will come home and see Ireland as an attractive place in which to work.

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