Better incentives are needed to recruit nurses and midwives in Ireland, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has insisted.

It was responding to figures from the HSE, which show that just 77 nurses have been recruited following a special recruitment campaign in the UK.

Last July, the HSE launched a major new campaign aimed at attracting nurses and midwives working abroad to come and work in Ireland. The campaign was particularly hoping to appeal to Irish nurses who had left this country to work in the UK, to return to the Irish health service.

As part of this, it offered a relocation package to successful applicants worth up to €1,500 tax free, to cover the costs of relocating, such as flights.

However, according to the INMO, the news that just 77 nurses have been recruited as a result of this campaign ‘provides confirmation that the pay, workloads, working hours and opportunities for continued professional development in Ireland are wholly inadequate when compared to the UK and other countries who are aggressively recruiting Irish nurses and midwives at this time'.

It said that when the campaign was launched in July, it pointed out that the ‘minimalist incentives on offer were totally inadequate' and did not compete with what was being offered by health trusts in the UK.

The INMO insisted that special initiatives are needed in Ireland if nurses are to be recruited here. These should offer returning nurses and midwives adequate pay, acceptable working environments, including hours, and improved career pathways.

The organisation pointed out that there are still 3,600 less nursing and midwifery posts in Ireland today compared to 2008. It said that the HSE has also confirmed that there were 136 less nurses and midwives employed at the end of July than at the beginning of 2015.

It noted that extra beds cannot be opened in hospitals if there are not enough nurses to look after patients. It also noted that existing midwife to birth ratios in maternity units ‘are grossly out of line with the UK/European average'.

"These figures confirm the INMO's long standing position that the HSE's efforts to recruit the required additional nurses and midwives were never going to succeed. Regrettably there is still a reticence to recognise the labour market reality and to offer greatly improved recruitment/retention initiatives for nurses and midwives to address our current crisis," commented INMO general secretary, Liam Doran.

He added that until Ireland properly competes in this current labour market, ‘we will continue to see an exodus of our young graduate nurses and midwives to the UK and other countries'.