Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 135: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on the ongoing acute shortage of nurses; the way she proposes to address the increasing dependence on agency nurses; her proposals for ensuring sufficient qualified nurses are available in the hospital service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35902/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I do not agree with the contention that there is an acute shortage of nurses. Ireland has one of the highest nurse to population ratios in the world. The Government has been successful in attracting an additional 10,200 nurses and midwives into the public health service over the last nine years. The number of nurses employed in the health service reached an all time high in the most recent personnel census. At the end of June 2006 there were 35,818 whole time equivalent (42,311 individual) nurses and midwives in the public health service. This is an increase of almost 40% since 1997.

The most recent National Survey on Nursing Resources report (March 2006) from the Health Service Executive — Employers Agency shows a national vacancy rate of just over 3%. There are obviously regional and sectoral variations in the vacancy rate but an overall rate of 3% could not be considered excessive. The Nursing Resources reports have been produced on a quarterly basis since 2000 and they consistently show that recruitment is ahead of resignations and retirements.

A combination of agency nurses and overtime working provides an additional input of nursing resources to cope with difficulties arising in the provision of services while employers continue the recruitment process to fill vacancies. In addition to covering vacancies, agency nurses are also used to 'special' (one to one nursing) patients and clients. Agency nursing is also used to cover for permanent nursing staff availing of various leave entitlements. The Health Service Executive has responsibility for managing nursing resources including agency nursing. I understand that the HSE is closely monitoring the usage of agency nurses and it is working with a number of the larger hospitals to establish a pilot project aimed at reducing reliance on agency nurses.

Ensuring an adequate supply of nurses for hospitals has been a concern of this Government for some time, and a number of substantial measures have been introduced in recent years. The annual number of undergraduate nursing training places has been increased by 94% since 1998 to 1,880 places from 2006 onwards. There are over 6,000 students in the system at any one time. Revenue funding for the undergraduate training programme is €115m per annum and the Government has provided €250m capital funding since 2002 to build thirteen new schools of nursing. The first cohort of students from the new four year degree programme graduated and registered as nurses earlier this year.

In addition to training additional nurses it is also important that work systems are constantly monitored and adapted to ensure the best outcomes for patients. The increased use of health care assistants and better skill mix will help to ensure that our nursing care teams will continue to be able to deal with the growing demands on the health service.

I am confident that the extensive range of measures to increase the domestic supply of nurses together with the more effective utilisation of the professional skills of nurses and midwives and the recruitment of overseas nurses, in addition to close monitoring and assessment of the situation on an ongoing basis, will continue to prove effective in addressing the nursing workforce needs of hospitals in the public health service.