Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Nov 2003

Vol. 575 No. 3

Written Answers. - Health Board Staff.

John Dennehy

Question:

258 Mr. Dennehy asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will launch a specific initiative to encourage nursing staff who have left the profession over the past number of years to return to employment within the sector in view of considerably improved pay conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28384/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

The recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of nursing staff has been a concern of the Government for some time. A number of substantial measures have been introduced in recent years, some with the specific intention of encouraging nursing staff who have left the profession to return to employment. These include an increase of 70% in the number of nursing training places from 968 in 1998 to 1,640 from 2002 onwards; payment of fees to nurses-midwives undertaking part-time nursing and certain other undergraduate degree courses; an improved scheme of financial support for student paediatric nurses and student midwives; payment of fees and enhanced salary to nurses-midwives undertaking courses in specialised areas of clinical practice; abolition of fees for "back to practice" courses and payment of salary to nurses-midwives undertaking such courses; financial support to State enrolled nurses, SEN, working in the Irish health service wishing to undertake nursing conversion programmes in the United Kingdom; 40 sponsorships made available each year for certain categories of health service employees wishing to train as nurses; and the introduction of flexible working options.

The following table illustrates the improvements that have taken place in nursing numbers over the past number of years:

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Whole-time Equivalents	26,611	27,044	29,173	31,428	33,395

In 1998, there were 26,611 whole-time equivalent nurses employed in the public health system. By the end of 2002 this figure had reached 33,395. This is an increase of almost 6,800 during the period or more than 25%.

The figure of 33,395 whole-time equivalents translates into 39,119 individual nurses. Of these, some 28,366 work full-time, and 10,753 work job-sharing or other atypical patterns. Thus, over one-quarter of the nursing workforce avail of family-friendly work patterns. It is clear from these figures that the recruitment and retention measures I introduced are proving very effective.