Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some 28,000 extra staff have been recruited since 2020. I regret that people, notwithstanding the context of 28,000 extra staff, including 9,000 extra nurses, feel that is a cause for industrial action. I acknowledge that there may be HR practices within the HSE that need addressing, but 4,000 staff alone have been regularised, which includes 2,000 extra people employed during Covid without sanction and 2,000 since then. In the financial settlement from the Department of public expenditure on health, which the Government agreed to, approximately €1.5 billion was put into the base this year to cover and make sure that all 4,000 staff are secured, plus an additional 3,500 staff for next year. Numbers are increasing. We just had a debate about value for money, Government expenditure and so on. We need to be very clear. The Government wants and will continue to expand health but we have expanded health to an enormous degree in the past four years.

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