Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 133: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the timetable for delivery of the additional nursing staff positions required to implement the 2001 health strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23800/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Quality and Fairness — A Health System for You, published in November 2001, provided a blueprint to guide planning and activity in the health system over the next seven to ten years. A key objective of the strategy is the training and recruitment of health professionals for the development and expansion of health services.

Action 101 of the strategy stated that the extra number of required staff for the health service would be recruited and that specifically, 10,000 nurses would be trained during the lifetime of the strategy. This target will be met. The Government has invested significantly in the training of nurses. The four-year nursing undergraduate degree programme started in 2002. Capital funding of €240 million has been provided for 13 new schools of nursing in the universities and institutes of technology. Revenue funding of €90 million per annum will be required on an ongoing basis as the programme reaches full complement. Since 2002 there have been 1,640 student places available each year, an increase of 70% on the 1998 figure. By the end of 2005 there will be over 6,000 students at various stages of the nursing degree programme.

The recruitment of additional staff for the expansion of existing services and the development of new services has been ongoing since the publication of the strategy. In December 2001 there were 31,426 whole time equivalent nurses employed in the public health service. By the end of December 2004 this figure had reached 34,313, an increase of 2,887 nurses in the first three years of the strategy. Further increases in the number of nurses employed will be considered in the context of new service developments.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 134: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the timetable for delivery of the additional acute hospital consultant positions required to implement the 2001 health strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23801/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The health strategy document Quality and Fairness: a Health System for You stated that there would be substantial increases in the number of consultant posts. The number and location of these posts would later be determined by taking account of the recommendations of the national task force on medical staffing. Its report was published in 2003 and recommended that in order to meet the hospital medical staffing requirements arising from the implementation of the European working time directive, approximately 3,100 consultants should be employed by 2009 and 3,600 by 2013.

To date, 513 additional consultant posts have been created since 2000. This represents a significant increase compared with the previous five years when an additional 224 posts were approved. The provision of additional consultant posts will be progressed within the context of the restructuring of the acute hospital services and the negotiation of a new contract for hospital consultants.