Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was not present last Thursday because EMC announced the creation of an additional 200 jobs in Cork. This brings to more than 2,000 the number of employees the company has in Cork. I pay tribute to the company and to its chief executive officer, Mr. Bob Savage, who is also the chairman of the board of Cork Institute of Technology. I refer to the changes he has brought about since taking over as chairman and the need for the connection between industry and our educational institutions. On Sunday, it was reported that there were more than 4,900 vacancies in the IT sector because we do not have sufficient people with the necessary skills in a number of areas, especially in the context of languages. It is important that the connection between industry and our educational institutions continues to be developed.

The cost of HSE agency staff was published earlier. A total of €176 million was spent in 2012. The cost of agency nurses increased from €105 million to €123 million while the fees paid for nurses on call increased from €27.7 million to €43.1 million in one year. This emphasises the importance of the Haddington Road Agreement. If it is adopted by all the unions - and hopefully it will be - there will be an opportunity to employ an additional 1,000 nurses in the health service. That is important to assist in the reduction of the expenditure on agency staff. Will the Leader schedule a debate on public sector reforms over the past two years if not during this session, early in the next session, to establish what reforms have taken place to date and what needs to be done in the next two years to make sure issues such as this do not continue to arise?