Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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800. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on initiatives and proposals undertaken to which he identifies and addresses shortages of nursing staff and consultants throughout the public health service; his plans to adequately address this issue in the short and medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30724/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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An extra 475 nurses and midwives have been employed between May 2014 and May 2015. In addition, the HSE is planning to recruit over 500 nurses across a number of nursing disciplines. There is significant work being undertaken to achieve this. This includes recent and ongoing national and local interviewing of all categories of nurses and midwives. The HSE has also developed an International Nurse Recruitment Project for filling posts. This initiative is a targeted recruitment drive in the UK primarily focused on Irish trained nurses who left during the moratorium. In order to facilitate this the services of a recruitment agency has been secured. At least 90 interviews have taken place and over 30 posts have been offered to candidates.

There has been a significant increase in the number of consultants (Whole Time Equivalents) since 1st January 2015:

- 72 doctors have been nominated to hospital consultant posts, by the Public Appointment Service (this includes some doctors who were interviewed by the PAS in 2014), and

- 65 doctors have accepted offers of contract (this includes some doctors who were offered contracts in 2014).

The number of consultants has also grown significantly in recent years to 2,700. This includes 700 more consultants in the last decade and 320 in the last five years, in spite of the economic crisis. The Government is committed to future growth. However, there are some specialties in which there is an international shortage and which have been traditionally difficult to fill, regardless of the salary scale. There are also some hospitals to which it has historically been difficult to attract applicants, in particular smaller hospitals. The establishment of Hospital Groups will help to address this difficulty, as this will allow doctors to be appointed as group resources. The number of NCHDs has also increased significantly in recent years, by over 600 since the end of 2010, and now exceeds 5,000. This increase will help to address service needs and progress EWTD compliance, thereby improving the working conditions of doctors.

The ability of the HSE and the health service to attract and retain high quality frontline staff shapes the extent to which the HSE can maintain and develop the range of health services required. The MacCraith Group was established to carry out a strategic review of medical training and career structures. The Group made a series of recommendations in its three reports aimed at improving the retention of medical graduates in the public health system and importantly, planning for future service needs. The implementation of the Group's recommendations is being actively pursued and monitored. It is noted in particular that revised pay rates for new entrant consultants, incorporating incremental credit for relevant experience and qualifications, were proposed by the LRC in January this year to address the barrier caused by the variation in rates of remuneration between new entrant consultants and their established peers that had emerged since 2012 and that these are now being implemented.