Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the House to deal with this matter. My understanding is that more than 700 applications for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland are pending. Earlier in the year I received representations from an Irish person who, following completion of her training in England, had returned to Ireland to take up a job but was unable to do so for 14 weeks even though the hospital needed somebody urgently. The Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, is reported in today's Irish Examineras saying that a unit in Cork cannot be opened because the 40 nurses required are not available. Much of the funding for this unit was raised voluntarily. However, because of a lack of nursing staff, it cannot open. I am not suggesting that this is connected to the delays in registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board but it must be a contributory factor.

I understand from Nursing Homes Ireland that the HSE is recruiting nurses currently working in private nursing homes and that this is resulting in a significant shortage of nurses in the private nursing home sector. The private nursing home sector proposes to recruit an additional 300 nurses over the next couple of months, some of whom may be Irish nurses working abroad wishing to return home, which will result in the number of nurses awaiting registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board increasing to 1,000. The registration body has cited the cost of employing staff as the reason for the delays. This issue needs to be addressed. We need front-line staff and competent nurses. If we cannot register these staff within a reasonable period, they will continue to go to other jurisdictions such as Canada, the US, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and so on. People will look to other alternatives if there is undue delay in the process here.

My understanding is that for people coming here from outside Europe, registration takes six to eight months. It is horrendous that people have to wait that length of time to be registered and as a result are looking to other jurisdictions. I am asking that the Minister engage with the board to see if a solution to this problem can be found such that anybody who applies for registration can be registered in a timely manner.