My question follows on from a question asked by an Teachta Adams. Can the Taoiseach give a date to the nurses with regard to the implementation of the agreement that they have with the Department of Health? I wish to make the Taoiseach aware in case he is not - perhaps he is, which maybe makes it worse - that an agreement was reached between the three recognised nursing trade unions and the Department of Health.

The unions reached this agreement in good faith. What more are workers in the health service and public service supposed to do? Having gone to the negotiating table and reached an agreement, they are being told the current inequality must continue because a memorandum must be sent by the Department of Health to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. What message are we sending to nurses who, in case the Taoiseach has not noticed, have been emigrating in droves because they do not feel respected? This decision sends them a message that the House does not respect them. I and my party do not want to be associated with such a message and I do not believe the Taoiseach wants to be associated with it. Will he give these bright young men and women a date by which the agreement will be implemented?

The Deputy has made her point.

Please do not fob them off with another date for a memorandum.

Deputy Joan Collins wishes to raise the same matter.

Yes, to follow up on the point made by Deputy Louise O'Reilly, private hospitals are offering young professional nurses bonuses of €5,000 in addition to what they are currently earning if they sign a contract. The Government is not showing respect to 600 nurses and midwives who reached an agreement with the Health Service Executive. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform made the same payment to nurses who graduated in 2016. The Government is showing disrespect to graduates who stayed here for five years and held the health service together during the worst of conditions and times. A memorandum should not be needed. The payment agreed with the Department of Health and HSE should be made immediately. This is scandalous.

Unfortunately, one cannot do things by waving a magic wand. Memorandums are an important piece of the jigsaw.

This is an agreement.

Please allow the Taoiseach to answer.

In answering Deputy Adams's question, I made the point that officials from the Department of Health met nurses last week and the Minister met them just an hour ago. Yesterday, officials from the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform met to see if this matter could be expedited. I remind Deputies that incremental credit for the 36-week clinical placement undertaken by fourth year student nurses was abolished by the then Government in December 2010. Following submissions made on behalf of the nursing representative bodies, namely, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland and SIPTU, the Department of Health and Health Service Executive, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, on 19 February 2016, sanctioned recognition of the 36-week placement as qualifying for incremental credit for students on a placement in 2016 and in future. This was an agreement to restore the payment.

The sanction stated that the question of awarding incremental credit for the placement of nurses who graduated between 2011 and 2015 may be reviewed on foot of a consideration of whether the sanction granted in respect of 2016 graduates and future graduates results in an increase in the retention rates for the graduate nurses in question. Nurses who undertook the placement in 2016 recently completed their placements and are only now in the process of registering. It will not, therefore, be evident for some time as to its impact.

A number of initiatives are under way to improve nursing staff levels and, as Deputies know, nurses are coming back from abroad. The Health Service Executive is offering permanent posts to 2016 degree nursing programme graduates and full-time permanent contracts to those in temporary posts. These are both important incentives. The HSE also launched an international staff nurse recruitment campaign last year, which focused on attracting nurses back from the United Kingdom to take up jobs in Ireland. The campaign placed particular emphasis on targeting Irish nurses who left the country in recent years and want to return home. Nurses returning home were offered a relocation package of assistance of €1,500, assistance with the costs of nursing registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland and funded postgraduate education as an incentive.

The campaign did not work.

The number of nurses employed in the public health service increased by 1,163 between August 2014 and August 2016, having fallen by 4,000 between 2007 and 2014.