Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Are 70% of nurses and midwives who work in our hospitals wrong when they say they are concerned about patient safety because of the levels of staffing? Is the outgoing president of the INMO wrong which she says that things are far worse now for patients and staff in hospitals? There are people in Australia and elsewhere who cannot come back and get a job as nurses owing to the embargo. The HSE cannot recruit a nurse from abroad. Are those people also wrong? A person got a job offer and is now working for an agency. It costs the HSE 30% more to employ her because it is through the agency. Is she wrong when she says she was told that her offer of a job was withdrawn because of the embargo? The Tánaiste talks about the so-called embargo. He needs to open his eyes and look around at what is happening. There is an embargo.

Regarding the numbers of professionals that were to be recruited this year, the Tánaiste is responsible for this because he will be part of the Government making this decision. The Government does not have its act together. It is the month of May and the Government has not sat down to look at the workforce plan for 2024. The HSE is in limbo and does not know how many it can employ. Robert Watt was before the committee and said it is over to the political level. There is a dispute there. When will the Government sign off on the workforce plan? Will it lift the recruitment embargo so we can allow our nurses and other professionals to come home from Australia and elsewhere and work in our health service?

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