Next week, the Labour Party will table a motion on the crisis in healthcare for patients and staff. Throughout the country, trade unions representing healthcare workers are holding lunchtime protests because the new de facto recruitment embargo is leaving vital positions unfilled and, therefore, putting patient safety at risk. It is taking up to a year to fill vacancies and when someone retires or leaves for another position, or takes leave, such as maternity leave, his or her position is not ring-fenced for backfilling. Clinical managers have no local autonomy to fill such vacancies and have to compete with all other requests in regional health areas. The INMO is balloting for industrial action, we are seeing key nursing posts being left vacant, and SIPTU has highlighted that the staffing crisis is causing delays in essential treatments. Thousands of positions were abolished because of the previous embargo, while the HSE spent €650 million last year on agency staff, which is 3% of the entire health budget. Will the Government lift the cap under the pay and numbers strategy and give local directors of nursing and midwifery sanction to recruit and fill posts so we can ensure safe staffing?

Some 28,000 extra staff have been recruited since 2020. I regret that people, notwithstanding the context of 28,000 extra staff, including 9,000 extra nurses, feel that is a cause for industrial action. I acknowledge that there may be HR practices within the HSE that need addressing, but 4,000 staff have been regularised, which includes 2,000 extra people employed during Covid without sanction and 2,000 since then. In the financial settlement from the Department of public expenditure on health, which the Government agreed to, approximately €1.5 billion was put into the base this year to cover and make sure that all 4,000 staff are secured, plus an additional 3,500 staff for next year. Numbers are increasing. We just had a debate about value for money, Government expenditure and so on. We need to be very clear. The Government wants to and will continue to expand health but we have expanded health to an enormous degree in the past four years.