Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----was in the context of hiring full-time staff to replace agency staff, but that is not happening. I can give the Minister examples - I have engaged with the HSE on this - of young nurses who were living in England who came home and want to work here. After receiving letters of offer, they spent weeks waiting and they are now considering returning to England because they cannot get permanent contracts. There is a need for these nurses and the hospital managers are bothered to recognise that need, but in the meantime they are paying agency staff to fulfil that role. There is a recruitment embargo in place and its result will be an escalating spend. The Minister cited his record of increasing staff. What is increasing, in fact, is the spend on agency staff. That is not decreasing and the reason is that the staff are not being converted from agency staff to full-time, permanent staff. It is costing more money per hour. The Minister and I know that, yet a young woman will return to England next week. She had a letter of offer but she will return to her job in England. Quite frankly, she feels the NHS wants her to work there and does not feel that the HSE wants her here.

See this speech in context