Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are now five months into 2024 and the health service still has not published its staffing plan for the year. The Secretary General of the Department of Health confirmed this morning that the moratorium or embargo is still in place and that the strategy is at a political level waiting on a decision from Government. I have lost count of the number of bright, talented young health and social care graduates who have contacted me about the Government's dangerous recruitment embargo. These include a pharmacist from Waterford, a paramedic from Dublin, a physiotherapist from Cork and experienced junior doctors, nurses and therapists. They are living abroad and looking to come home but there are no jobs on offer for them. The INMO has surveyed its membership and 92% believe that patient safety is being compromised because of the embargo. I urge the Taoiseach to lift this very dangerous recruitment embargo and to make that decision now.

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