I wish to talk about the same issue as Deputy McDonald but from a different angle. I hope that I will get a different answer, although that would be a miracle.

In April, the HSE implemented what was, to all intents and purposes, a recruitment embargo, supposedly to run for three months and end in mid-July. This was an attempt by the Government to manage the mismanagement of the national children's hospital project and other HSE overruns over the past year. The irony is that the longer the recruitment freeze goes on, the more costly it will be because people waiting for appointments get sicker and need more expensive and intensive intervention when they are eventually seen. Meanwhile, the HSE is spending millions on agency staff to cover the recruitment freeze, guaranteeing a spending crisis for the Government in the near future. Seven months later and we still have a recruitment freeze, although the Government continues to deny that there is an embargo, referring to it instead as "controls". In a letter to me, the head of HR in the HSE said that the north-west CHO 1 area has not implemented a recruitment embargo or freeze but has introduced "interim controls". This is a freeze by another name and that is what we have. Let us call a spade a spade and call it a recruitment embargo. Furthermore, it is hardly interim if it has been going on for seven months. These measures look set to be a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future.

The consequence of this embargo is that over 100 posts in Donegal for which approval had been given by the national recruitment service are vacant. I am awaiting statistics from the Saolta University Health Care Group, of which the hospitals in Donegal are part, that will likely paint a similar picture. It took the HSE over a month to reply to my query. In its reply, the executive stated that it does not have the figures yet. If it does not respond, that might solve the crisis altogether. At Letterkenny University Hospital, over 19,000 people were awaiting inpatient or outpatient treatment at the end of June, an increase of almost 1,900, or 11%, on the figure for June 2018. Almost 2,000 more are awaiting outpatient appointments.

A total of 1,783 women are waiting to see gynaecologists at Letterkenny University Hospital. The waiting list has been growing for the past five years. The recruitment embargo has prevented management at the hospital from recruiting the nurses, doctors and support staff required to fully reopen its short-stay ward. Elective surgeries and procedures at the hospital are being impacted which, in turn, is adding to the lengthy waiting lists. Figures released today show that 47 people, the third highest number in the country, are waiting on trolleys at the hospital.

CHO 1, which includes Donegal, has fewer mental health posts than was the case ten years ago. The direct consequences of this are manyfold and include longer waiting lists, a worsening trolley crisis and, most concerning of all, worsening conditions for people seeking treatment, which they would not need if the health services had the staff in place to provide those services as required. When will the Government end the recruitment ban and fill the over 100 vacant posts in Donegal in respect of which approval has already been received?

The Deputy asked some very specific questions about CHO 1 and Letterkenny University Hospital. I am afraid I do not have the necessary details in order to give him answers on that, but I will ask the Minister for Health to do so via correspondence. I can, however, comment on the wider picture.

There is no recruitment embargo or ban in the HSE. There are between 10,000 and 15,000 more people working in the HSE now than there were two or three years ago. There has been a constant increase in the number of staff in the HSE in the last couple of years. HSE managers are no longer allowed to take on staff without the money to pay them, which is a practice that occurred in the health service. This does not happen in the education sector or the Garda, but it was common practice in the health service for a number of years for managers to take on staff without the budget to pay them. That became the overrun we often talk about at the end of the year. The new CEO has brought in more controls in that regard. Those controls, which stipulate that managers can only take on staff if they have the budget to pay them, would be considered normal practice in any other part of the public service.

As I mentioned earlier, we now have more staff in the health services than previously. There are 600 more nurses working in our public health service than this time last year, and there more doctors than ever before. We now have 11,000 beds in our public health service. During the Celtic tiger period, a policy decision was taken by the Government of the day to take thousands of beds out of our hospital system. That was a mistake. In 2014, we reversed that policy as soon as we had the money to do so. We have been adding hospital beds ever since, but clearly we need to do more.

I contend that the Taoiseach is misleading the House about this issue. There is an embargo in place right across the board. However, it is not referred to as an embargo. According to a letter from St. Joseph's hospital in Stranorlar, "interim control measures" were introduced in April 2019. That is coming from the HSE. Those measures apply nationally. The Taoiseach may not have figures specific to Donegal, but he has the national figures because he has a Minister for Health, as he so eloquently said in response to the previous question. I have two letters here from the HSE which list hundreds of posts, over pages and pages, that are on hold and cannot be filled because of the recruitment embargo, or the "interim control measures" that are in place. When will the Government lift the interim control measures and ensure that people can actually receive treatment in our health services?

An embargo would mean nobody was being recruited or replaced, which is definitely not the case.

They are not being allowed to start work.

People are being-----

They are not getting a start.

Allow the Taoiseach to respond.

People are being-----

The Taoiseach is clearly misleading the House.

This is not Deputy Broughan's question. He should resume his seat.

People who were hired eight or nine months ago are not allowed to start work in our health services. The Taoiseach is clearly misleading the House.

People are-----

In this Chamber, every Member is entitled to a bit of respect and courtesy. The Deputy had the floor to put his question, and the Taoiseach has a right to respond to it.

He should give the facts.

I will give the facts if I am permitted to do so. There has been an increase in staffing levels by grade since September 2018, or this time last year.

This year. Since April.

Since this time last year, we have recruited 125 more consultants, 189 more registrars and 301 more clinical nurse managers, who would have been called ward sisters or senior nurses in the past.

There are 143 more nurse and midwife specialists and 111 more staff nurses and midwives. Since this time last year, a considerable number of front-line healthcare professionals-----

Since April there has been a moratorium.

This year. Since April.

-----have been recruited. Not only have those who have left been replaced, extra staff have been hired on top of that. What is no longer permitted is HSE managers taking on staff if they do not have the budget to pay them. That is the norm across the public service.

Even after recruitment? Even after holding competitions?

Deputy Seamus Healy, please.

They should not recruit people they do not have a budget to pay for.

People have lost private sector jobs on foot of being promised a post by the HSE.