Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O'Reilly and I get to hang out another bit longer anyway.

I thank the Deputy for her repeated question on what is an important issue in relation to nurse and midwifery numbers in this country.

As the Deputy will probably be aware, nursing and midwifery numbers at the end of April this year stood at 36,549 whole-time equivalents, having increased by 625 whole-time equivalents in the 12 months from the end of the previous April, and by 1,870 in the three years from April 2014 to April 2017.

Under an agreement, the Deputy knows well, reached with the INMO and SIPTU nursing, encompassing proposals put forward on 8 February and those in a related addendum on 4 March, health service management committed to increasing the nursing and midwifery workforce in 2017 to deliver 1,208 additional permanent posts. Delivery of these posts is possible through a combination of new development posts, for which additional funding is being provided in the current year, and the local conversion of agency employed staff into direct employees. Nursing and midwifery numbers increased by 126 from the end of February to the end of March and by a further 113 from the end of March to the end of April.

A broad range of measures is being implemented to give effect to the agreement. These include the conversion of agency employed staff into HSE direct employees, offering all graduating nurses and midwives full-time contracts, ongoing recruitment campaigns in Ireland and abroad - I welcome the one in Glasgow recently - and the implementation of a range of retention measures.

The recruitment measures include careers days, HSE attendance at national and international recruitment fairs and a communication from the national director for HR to all nursing and midwifery graduates telling them how to apply for a full-time permanent post in the Irish health service. A high level group with an independent chair has been established for the oversight of the implementation of this agreement and the first meeting of that group was held on 24 May 2017.

Key retention measures include enhanced maternity leave cover, a career break scheme and offering nurses and midwives improved educational opportunities and career pathways. In addition, 130 additional undergraduate places are being provided in 2017, which means we will train this year more nurses than we have ever trained, in terms of undergraduate places, in the history of the State.

I also issued a written direction under section 10 of the Health Act 2004 - it has never been done before for nurse recruitment - to the Health Service Executive in order to emphasise the importance of the full implementation of this agreement.

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