Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Of course, I speak to front-line staff. No one here has exclusivity on speaking to them and I will continue to speak regularly with them, as will, I am sure, Deputies from all sides. While staff accept that the economy is recovering because more money is being invested in the health service, they would be the first to tell me and I would be the first to agree that we must do much more to improve the health service. The only reason the previous Government was able to increase the health budget was that we had money available to do so. We could not increase it when the troika was in town. I find myself in my new position as Minister for Health at a time of reinvestment in the health service and there is much in which to reinvest. The health budget increased and will increase again. While we will continue to invest in the health service, we cannot fool people or pretend something is the case when clearly it is not. There are recruitment issues. There are vacant nursing posts which are funded and could be filled and we need to persuade more nurses to return from the United Kingdom. This can be done by a variety of means. I speak to nurses on the front line and representatives of nursing organisations. We also need to attract consultants from abroad and, as the Deputy correctly pointed out, we must continue to convert agency posts to front-line permanent posts. While a significant job of work remains to be done, let us not promote the myth that staff numbers are being reduced when the figures clearly show they are increasing.

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