I wish to speak about the proposed increase in registration fees for nurses and midwives. It is an 80% increase over two years, from €88 two years ago to a proposed €150 this year. If costs had risen as a result of legislative changes, there might be a case to be made, although it would be a very poor one. There is a growing and deepening suspicion that a figure of €4.7 million will appear in the accounts of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland which has not published accounts in two years. These accounts are to be published in the next few days and might show a figure of €4.7 million due to impaired loan repayments. A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland seemed to confirm yesterday that this was the case. Therefore, we will be in real trouble.

That is because we are of the view that we can solve our problems within our profession, which is probably as it should be. In the past week or so, the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, called on nurses to go the extra mile or make an additional effort to ensure the crisis in accident and emergency departments was resolved. I contend that they have gone an extra two miles in this regard. In fact, they go the extra mile every day in order to ensure accident and emergency services and the health service in general operate properly. The response from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland has been to prevent the same nurses the Minister has called on to make the additional effort from working because they will not pay the registration fee. I do not believe nurses should pay that fee, particularly if it is connected to the increased costs in paying off impaired loans. The Minister needs to become involved in dealing with this matter. He made a statement in recent days, but he needs to take a more proactive approach and discover what is the exact position. If the board has incurred debts of €4.7 million in respect of property speculation, this indicates that the malaise within it is even worse than previously thought. Will the Leader ask the Minister to take the approach to which I refer in the interests of resolving the dispute?