Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I sympathise with the task the Minister has to hand and I do not doubt his personal commitment to try to solve it.

However, before we begin, in January, the health service plan is insufficient. The Minister does not have sufficient funding. He is behind the curve in terms of following crises across all of the disciplines. I did not even get to mental health, where Deputy Varadkar's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, outlined today that she foresees a crisis in staffing where 1,000 nurses will retire this side of the summer. What plan has the Minister in place to deal with that?