Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister for Health, I thank the Deputy. He fully acknowledges the concerns of the Deputy and the wider staff about the impacts these shortages are having. As the Deputy and I laid out, there are recruitment challenges generally across several sectors, not only the health sector, but they are in the health sector. This is posing a particular challenge for the public health nursing service at present. Some 40% of posts are vacant in the Dublin west region, which covers the Deputy's constituency. In response to these staff shortages, the public health nursing service is triaging all referrals to ensure a safe service is provided to those with the greatest clinical need in the community. This is important. While it is disappointing and frustrating that staff shortages persist, the Department has been assured by the HSE that every effort is being made to address the recruitment challenges in the short term, including by running ongoing recruitment campaigns. It is expected that the HSE's community nursing national oversight group will propose recommendations later this year that aim to address some of the longer-term issues regarding the recruitment and retention of public health nurses and community registered general nurses. The Minister wishes to reassure the Deputy that his Department and the HSE will continue to work together to review and monitor staffing and service levels and to utilise all practical options to fill vacancies in Dublin and elsewhere.

As I mentioned in my opening reply, my Department will do anything we can to assist, such as bringing nurses in from overseas. It takes 16 days to turn around a work permit at the moment. More generally, a critical skills permit for a nurse or other medical professional can be issued in under a week at the moment. We are more than happy, when the HSE is prepared to engage with nurses, especially public health nurses, from outside the EU to ensure they get here as quickly as possible.

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