Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There is a dire shortage of dentists and we were told the Minister's response was to put work out to the private sector. That is okay for a short-term stopgap measure. It does not work in the longer term. Will the Minister please try to concentrate on public employees in the public health service?

In budget 2022, 21 neurological nursing posts were approved and 13 of those still have not been filled. The reason is that the approval for the additional nurses only came out of the HSE HR department late last year and there was not sufficient lead-in time to hold a recruitment campaign to beat the recruitment embargo. We are now left with a situation in which 21 nursing posts were approved in 2022 and now, in 2024, more than half of those posts have not been filled and they have been caught by the recruitment embargo. Will the Minister take steps to ensure an exemption is made for those? They should have been filled long ago. The fault is with the HSE, but the-----

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