Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of that. The issue that must be dealt with is increasing the number of places on the adaption courses for nurses who have trained abroad but who wish to work here to allow them go through the training process and then become available to work in Irish hospitals and nursing homes.

The other issue facing nursing homes is that many of the nurses working in them are taking on jobs in the Health Service Executive, HSE. The HSE can now recruit for the first time in a number of years and some of the people who have been working in nursing homes for a number of years are returning to work in HSE hospitals or community hospitals. The nursing homes are facing that problem from both sides. On the one side they are losing nurses and on the other side they do not have an adequate number of training places for those who want to come and work in this country.