Job statistics: There are now more than 1,100 nursing vacancies in hospitals and healthcare facilities across the State, new figures show.
The statistics compiled by the Health Service Executive Employers Agency and which have been seen by The Irish Times show there were 85 vacancies at one Dublin hospital alone at the end of June. These were recorded at St James's Hospital.
A further 55 vacancies were counted at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, while 47 were recorded at Beaumont Hospital and 40 at the Coombe Women's Hospital.
Most of these are filled on a day-to-day basis by costly agency staff and by staff nurses working overtime.
The latest figures also indicate vacancy levels are continuing to rise. They show there were a total of 1,118 nursing vacancies at the end of June, up from 771 at the end of June last year, an increase of some 31 per cent.
Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation said last night that the figures were "graphic proof that the manpower policy that has been followed over recent years is patently failing to provide the nursing and midwifery manpower to staff the country's health service".
He said almost 11,000 Irish trained nurses have left the State since 1998 which equates to about 1,500 a year. This was also the number of nurses trained every year here, he said. "So we have lost every year the number we train every year."
He said the latest figures did not reflect the fact that no nurses qualified this autumn due to changes in the way nurses are educated. "Therefore, the position will be worse at the end of the year," he said.
Mr Doran claimed there is not a shortage of nurses in the Republic, rather that the State is failing to retain its nurses. Then it goes abroad spending "a small fortune" recruiting nurses from places like India, he said.
The data in the HSEEA report is based on figures collected during August and September. It states that the total number of vacancies which existed at the end of June represents just 3.22 per cent of the total nursing workforce of 34,693. Furthermore it refers to a movement of nurses "within the system" with employers reporting that a total of 1,019 nurses had been recruited during April, May and June, some 344 of these from abroad, but also stating that 692 nurses had also resigned or retired or moved to another employer during the three months.
The report also says some 842 agency nurses were employed during April, May and June to fill vacancies.
A spokesman for St James's Hospital, the hospital with the largest number of vacancies at the end of June, said the hospital had more than 1,800 nurses and the vacancy rate was now down to 56. This represented just 3 per cent of its overall nursing complement, he said.
The Minister for Health Mary Harney said two weeks ago that "relatively few of our nurses move abroad". She claimed those who do, do so to travel rather than to work and then come back.