Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is referring to an article that was in a newspaper this morning. The article does not deal with all the facts or put them in the public domain.

It clearly focuses in on the increases in administrative staff who make up approximately 16% of the overall staff but one must look at where historically there were reductions in staff. The moratorium put in place in 2009 had a greater impact on administrative staff than front-line staff for obvious reasons and as that moratorium has been lifted, we are trying to bring back up services.

One also must remember the range of services that are undertaken by administrative staff, such as processing medical cards. If we were to cut back on that and hold that back, we in this House would be animated if people were not gaining access to that service. We must be careful what we wish for.

Some of the largest increases in staffing in the medical care sector has been in the area of carers, the number of which has increased from 16,000 in 2009 to 19,000. Obviously, we have encountered difficulties in recruiting some front-line staff, particularly nurses, and that continues to be a challenge and a focus of the HSE actions to deal with that.

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