Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not think the Deputy would be. Thankfully, when the INMO members had an opportunity to be balloted on this, over 80% of them voted in favour of these proposals, seeing them for what they are, which is a genuine and sincere effort by nurse representatives in this country, by my Department, by myself and by the HSE to try and increase recruitment and retention of nurses.

I will give Deputy Louise O'Reilly another practical example. The Deputy talks of her 22 nurses. The HSE recently went to Glasgow to a nurse recruitment fair where it met 27 Irish nurses who had been working in Scotland now ready and willing, and wanting, to come home and talking to the HSE about how do they take up opportunities in this country. The message needs to go out from all of us in this House that there are now opportunities for those nurses to come home.

The Deputy and I have talked about the issue of pay previously. There are now pay proposals on the table through the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and I am sure those issues will be debated by nursing unions in the coming weeks and months.

One cannot get away from the fact there are 625 more nurses working in the Irish health service at the end of April last than there were at the end of April 2016 and the numbers are growing. It is not all about pay. It is also about career pathways. That is why there are measures such as taking on 120 new people to study and train up as advance nurse practitioners this September. I genuinely believe those career pathways will encourage more people to stay in this country.

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