Additional information not given on the floor of the House. It forensically examined all the evidence from the employer side and from the staff side. Its considered conclusion is that there are no generalised recruitment and retention difficulties in respect of nursing and midwifery. The report states that the commission was not persuaded, based on the evidence available, that pay arrangements were in themselves a significant impediment to recruitment and that current pay rates do not appear to be unduly affecting the number of nurses, midwives and doctors applying to work abroad. In respect of nurses and midwives it considered that the national levels of nursing and midwifery turnover rates do not indicate a generalised retention crisis and that the available evidence suggests that none of the turnover rates reported are significantly out of line with those experienced in private sector employment generally. Instead it recommended a targeted package to incentivise nurses and midwives to work in certain areas, a recommendation which the Government has accepted and which remains on the table alongside the other pay benefits of the public service stability agreement and the significant measures agreed with ICTU on new entrant salary scales.

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