Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Of course I accept and am aware that we have many cases across our public services of patients who are being let down and of constituents who are not receiving the attention and care we believe they should. However, the analysis the Deputy put forward, that this is due to our inability to recruit and keep staff, is completely at odds with the reality of what has happened in the growth of our public services. In 2015, we had 301,589 whole-time equivalents working within our public service. By the end of last year, that figure had risen to 397,000. Therefore we have around 95,000 more people working in our public services. That is not a public service that is struggling to recruit or retain people. There is a bigger and growing public service. By the end of this year there will be more than 407,000 people working in the public service in Ireland. I am not for a moment diminishing the individual and important cases the Deputy is raising of those who are not getting the public services they want.

There are more people than ever working in our public services.

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