Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

Regarding staffing, Cork and Galway both have new builds and new machines, but not enough staff. St. Luke's network has a CT scanner with no staff, a skin cancer treatment service operating at reduced capacity because it has insufficient staff, and at the same time, we had 30 graduates in radiation therapy from Trinity College last year. Only ten of them secured posts in Ireland, a further ten left the profession, and ten more have no employment. Radiation therapy graduates need a guarantee of employment from the HSE. At the moment, we are just training them to leave the country, leave the profession or go to the private sector. We also have the ludicrous situation where radiation therapists hired by the HSE do not get incremental credit for previous service in the private sector. How can the Minister justify this policy where radiation therapists are so desperately needed? Why would they move from the private sector to take a pay cut? To address these staffing issues, we need two measures. We need a guarantee of graduate employment for those qualifying and we also need incremental credit for radiation therapists.

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