Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Everyone in the House will acknowledge that it takes less time to ask questions than it does to answer them, and I think I counted approximately 11 questions, but I will do my best to answer as many as I can.

I acknowledge the recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives is a problem and an issue. We are struggling to recruit in large parts of the public and private sectors at the moment. It is, in part, a feature of the fact that we are almost approaching full employment. It is also a feature of the fact that, when it comes to healthcare in particular, we live in an international labour market in which people with healthcare skills are highly sought after. England, Scotland and most of Europe pay less than Ireland does, but even parts of the world that pay more, like the Middle East and Australia, are also struggling to recruit healthcare staff. It is not just a simple issue of pay.

Notwithstanding that, there are 3,000 more nurses and midwives working in our health service now than three years ago. Comparing like with like and month with month, 800 more nurses were working in our public health service last December than the December before that. The impression that is sometimes created to the effect that there are more nurses leaving than coming in is not correct.

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