There are commitments in the programme for Government to improve waiting times for hospital procedures and to reduce the length of time from when a patient presents at an emergency department to his or her discharge home or admission to a ward. To implement these commitments, however, there must be a full quota of nursing staff. Today there are 3,500 fewer nurses employed by the HSE than in 2009. There are shortages in most specialised areas. The HSE is spending €1.2 million on agency nurses per week instead of making real efforts to fill the vacant positions. There are no real incentives to attract Irish nurses home to work in Irish hospitals. In the past two to three years, up to 20,000 Irish nurses applied for certificates to work abroad. This in an alarming reality in our health service today.

Nurses are working overtime, are not being replaced when on leave and are expected constantly to meet increased demands with fewer staff. The Government and the HSE seem detached from this and are not tackling the issue. Last August a report was prepared on the crisis in emergency departments. It recommended recruiting 200 additional nurses to cope with the extra patients in emergency departments who were waiting for admission, but not one nurse has been recruited. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, will launch the HSE service plan today which will read like a work of fiction unless practical measures are taken to address what is, by any yardstick, a substantial manpower crisis in our health service, particularly in nursing where there is an acute shortage. That shortage is now impacting on the quality of care and the delivery of services to patients. It is quite staggering.

I thank Deputy Martin for his question. The HSE service plan will be published today. The agency's budget is €14 billion, the highest amount ever allocated to a health service plan. The plan contains a number of very important and positive developments.

The Deputy raises an important point. The HSE has recruited 500 staff for each of the past two months and before that. Of the most recent 500, 160 were nurses, 180 were community therapists and professional health care workers and 73 were medical posts. We have difficulties in some areas because of viruses and other illnesses which have led to a shortage of staff.

I welcome that the HSE announced today that it will host a further open recruitment event on 28, 29 and 30 of this month for nurses and midwives from all disciplines who are interested in working in the Irish health service. This will target nurses returning home for Christmas. There will be walk-in interviews on each day. This will be the first in a series of career day events for nurses throughout 2017. The Deputy will also be aware that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, restored the incremental credits to trainee nurses. When they emerge from training, they are offered permanent jobs. Recruitment is a challenge, admittedly. Other countries offer different facilities, but I hope that we can make an improvement as time goes on.