asked the Minister for Health the proposals his Department have to facilitate the necessary two-fold increase in the number of public health nurses if the community care programme is to provide a proper service for the aged and handicapped.

I do not accept that there is a need for a two-fold increase in the present number of public nurses. The working group which surveyed the workload of public health nurses recommended in 1975 that the number of such health nurses employed by the health boards should be 1,152. The number of posts at present is 1,045. My aim is to reach the number recommended by the working group within two years. To this end I have approved of two extra training courses in Cork and Galway and this allows for doubling the intake of trainees.