Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is very important that all committees and particularly this one express solidarity with the nurses. None of the thousands of nurses who were on the picket line yesterday wished to be there. They wanted to be delivering treatments within a safe system. That is the key to the recruitment and retention issue. We cannot expect nurses to work under the present terms and conditions. I plead with the Minister and the Taoiseach to intervene to sort this out. I am very mindful of the almost 25,000 patients, some of whom have waited years and months to get their treatment, who had their appointments cancelled yesterday. That is not right in a State like this and we have to do everything we possibly can to stop it happening. I am also aware that today the psychiatric nurses are refusing to go on overtime, which is absolutely within their right. This highlights the chaos within the system. The situation will escalate unless the Government intervenes, and it needs to do so now.

The Government will have to intervene at some stage anyway. Those involved will have to sit down and work this out. It should happen sooner rather than later before other appointments have to be cancelled. I urge everyone who has something in their remit to be able to change this to change it. I commend the nurses on their bravery. It was not an easy thing for them to do knowing all those appointments, operations and procedures would be cancelled yesterday. They do not want to be on the picket lines and certainly I do not want to see them on the picket lines.