Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 130: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of nurses who have left the practice of nursing in the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16378/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The information requested by the Deputy is not available. While there will always be attrition from the nursing profession for a variety of reasons, including retirement, changing occupation, migration and family reasons, the current vacancy rate now stands at 2.25%, which could be considered a normal frictional rate. Government policy over the past number of years has been to ensure the recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of nurses, and a range of measures have been introduced. A comprehensive range of financial supports have been introduced to support nurses in pursuing part-time degrees and specialist courses, including "back to practice" courses. The cost of these supports will be €10 million in 2005.

My Department introduced a scheme of flexible working arrangements for nurses and midwives in February 2001. Under the scheme, individual nurses and midwives may apply to work between eight and 39 hours per week on a permanent, part-time basis. Almost a quarter of all nurses now job share or work part-time hours.

There have been substantial salary increases for nurses over the past number of years. Between 1997 and 2004 the basic salary of a staff nurse increase by 57.5%. In the same period the salaries of clinical nurse managers increased by between 73% and 89%. The number of training places for student nurses has been increased by 70% since 1998.

The numbers of nurses employed in the public health service has increased dramatically over the past five years from 27,044 in 1999 to 34,313 at the end of 2004, an increase of over 26%. The turnover rate for nurses has also shown a significant improvement in recent years. The most recent study covering the five years 1999 to 2003 reported that the turnover rate had fallen by 40%.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 131: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of nurses who have left the public health service and moved to the private health sector in the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16379/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Available statistics do not include data on the movement of nursing staff between the public and private health sector. However, I can inform the Deputy that over the past five years an additional 7,269 nurses, whole time equivalent, were employed in the public health service. The figure of 34,313 nurses and midwives employed at the end of 2004 represents a 26% increase on the 1999 figure and is indicative of the Government commitment to expanding public health services.