Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We did that in the agreement I reached with nursing unions. I also signed a section 10 direction to the HSE. The last time such a direction was signed by a health Minister was when Mary Harney brought about the policy of co-location. It is the strongest instrument available to a Minister. In this case, it delegates the sanction for the employment of nurses directly to directors of nursing, many of whom will be members of the nursing unions, such is the priority we are attaching to this.

I am not suggesting we have enough nurses, midwives or doctors working in health service. However, the facts matter. There are more nurses working in the health service this year than last year. I hope there will be more next year than this year. There are more doctors working in the health service this year than last year. I accept there are significant recruitment and retention challenges, not just in this country but globally. One can ask how Britain is managing to recruit and retain nurses in the context of Brexit.

There are many challenges with a mobile workforce. We want them to stay in this country. We have a new public sector deal, which has been accepted by unions. We also have new career opportunities such as advanced nurse practitioners, the new community nursing scheme and the task force on skills mix to check how many individual nurses we need in each ward to ensure they are safely tasked. There are several measures under way that will aid the recruitment and retention process in order that we will continue to see more nurses and doctors working in the health service.

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