Varadkar announces 500 new nursing posts
Five hundred new nurses are to be recruited this year.
The extra workers will be hired in addition to the planned increase in mental health nurses.
Health minister Leo Varadkar has made the announcement at the Fine Gael conference this afternoon.
He says he wants Irish medical workers based abroad to think about coming home.
He said: "The cycle of cuts is now over and I want the message to go out from this conference to our doctors, our nurses and our therapists overseas.
"In England, in America, in Australia and in the Middle East.
"The time has now come to consider coming back to Ireland to help us to rebuild our health services and to contribute to Ireland's recovery."
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