The chronic shortage of public health nurses needs urgent attention. Not for the first time, developmental checks for those aged under five have been suspended in some parts of the country. These checks are vital to ensure milestones are being met and to identify medical issues and developmental delays. At the moment, the best the HSE can offer to some parents is a QR code to a guidance book. This is not right and not good enough. The situation should come as no surprise. In 2018, the health service capacity review said there would be a 46% increase in demand for public health nurses by 2031. Despite this, figures released to the Social Democrats in October showed there were 86 fewer public health nurses in 2024 than in 2020. The number of public health nurses should be increasing, not decreasing. What is the Government going to do about the staffing crisis?

I thank the Deputy for the question. He is quite right to identify that there is a problem, particularly in Dublin. While there has been an increase in the numbers of nursing staff generally, we are struggling in the recruitment of public health nurses. Several measures have been taken by the HSE to try to remedy this, including an equivalence in terms of salary scales and other incentives to try to bring more public health nurses into the health service. I recognise, however, that the work is not complete and there is a shortage. The work that is being done is prioritising urgent care, including newborn checks and so on, but I recognise this is a stress for parents of young children in particular and we really are working to try to get it remedied through those different incentive mechanisms.