Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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391. To ask the Minister for Health if he will report on the Health Service Executive scheme that was launched in July 2015, the aim of which was to recruit nurses who had been trained here to return here for employment. [40288/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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With a recovering economy, the Health Service Executive is now in a position to offer a wide range of challenging career opportunities for nurses and midwives. There are many initiatives currently underway to improve nursing staff levels throughout the country. These include the retention of 2015 degree programme graduates, offering full time permanent contracts, and an international recruitment campaign.

In July, the HSE launched an International Staff Nurse Recruitment Campaign which focused on the UK to attract Staff Nurses to jobs in Ireland. In this campaign, there was a particular emphasis on targeting Irish Nurses who have left Ireland in recent years and want to return home. It is envisaged that the HSE will be expanding this recruitment initiative outside the UK and Europe shortly in order to fill service vacancies.

I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.