Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will refresh the Minister's memory and that of the House as to what these commitments are. There is a commitment to hire 8,500 staff by the end of next month, 12,500 by the end of April, and 16,000 by December of next year. Again, that is 8,500 by the end of December. I am really looking forward to getting that document on 15 November because massive progress must obviously have been made over recent months. We know there are issues in respect of recruitment. We have seen this in the area of contact tracing. What really brought this home to me, however, was when I asked a parliamentary question, the answer to which told me that we had 200 fewer permanent nurses in August than we did in December of last year. How could that happen? The Minister told me that we have nearly 2,000 extra contract staff. That is even more concerning. Does the Minister's management consultant experience not tell him that 2,000 whole-time equivalent staff not being offered permanent contracts represents a systems failure?

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