Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is asking a reasonable question. We need to continue to invest and reinvest in the health service. We have made progress in that regard and I outlined that with the €977 million increase this year in comparison with the original projected budget from a year before. I am glad the Deputy raised the now deferred industrial action by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

The Deputy is right. Our nurses believe there is a recruitment and retention challenge. So do I. That is why we had a very good engagement with the INMO and SIPTU at the WRC.

We have put in place a set of very good and innovative proposals that will help fill the 1,200 new nursing posts we want to deliver this year, including more than 120 advanced nurse practitioners, more midwives and staff to cover maternity leave - and today is International Women's Day - in what is a nearly all-female workforce. We have put in place a pre-retirement scheme to allow nurses aged 55 to 65 to choose to work part time rather than retiring. We have doubled the amount for the "bring them home" campaign. It was €1,500 for a nurse who returned from the UK. It will now be €3,000, €1,500 in the first 12 months followed by another €1,500, and we have extended it beyond the UK. We have much work to do after a lost decade for our public services. These are some of the areas in which we are trying to get progress.

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