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

It is fair to say the scheme did not work out as well as we expected or hoped. Notwithstanding this, more than 5,000 people were recruited to our public health service this year, including 800 doctors, 800 nurses and 1,600 therapists, healthcare professionals and healthcare workers. A lot of direct recruitment has happened in the past eight or nine months. In the budget announced this week, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, secured funding to recruit and hire directly, and not through an agency, 15,000 additional staff for the health service, which is huge. It will increase our public health workforce by more than 10% in one year. It is a phenomenal amount of money. It could really result in a step change in staffing levels throughout the health service in hospitals and in the community.

See this speech in context