Seán Haughey
Ceist:155 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Health and Children the efforts, if any, being made to recruit more nurses generally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14307/99]
Vol. 505 No. 6
155 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Health and Children the efforts, if any, being made to recruit more nurses generally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14307/99]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 7 and 42 on Thursday, 27 May, in which I gave details of initiatives being undertaken by the Health Service Employers' Agency – HSEA – to address the current difficulties being experienced by health agencies in recruiting nurses.
In tandem with the initiatives undertaken by the HSEA to encourage more registered nurses back to nursing, important measures have also been taken to attract more young people to nursing training.
The future demographics indicate that the recruitment of school leavers into nursing will become increasingly difficult. There are currently 340,000 in the 15-19 age group. It is projected that this will reduce to 245,000 by the 2011. This means that number of school leavers available for the labour market and education will be declining progressively over the next ten years.
A primary aim of the nursing careers centre, which is now managed by An Bord Altranais, is to ensure that nursing is vigorously promoted as a career choice in its own right for Irish school-leavers.
This year it is expected that there will be some 1,192 training places available on the nursing diploma programmes – 831 in general nursing, 201 in psychiatric nursing and 160 in mental handicap nursing. The Government has provided additional funding of £7.5 million this year, bringing to some £32 million the amount that will be spent on the programmes in 1999.