Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I said I would intervene and I brought it to the attention of the Department, which brought it to the attention of the HSE. It has been raised in the House by many Deputies in your area. For some reason, there is a significant challenge in recruiting public health nurses in that particular area. I understand how important public health nurses are in relation to young babies, their mothers and older people. There is a serious challenge here. It is not affected by the moratorium because this was an issue before the moratorium was ever in place. The overriding recruitment piece is not down to me as Minister of State. My job is to try to secure funding with the Government and the Taoiseach. The issue is that the HSE has to operationalise the funding we get. It has failed to recruit someone in that area because there were challenges in that particular area.

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