Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise sincerely for being late. We are trying to keep St. Joseph's Shankill dementia care centre open so we had a big rally outside the gates. I needed to be there.

I acknowledge the work of the INMO's members. The current system is extraordinarily difficult. Almost every interaction I have had with public hospitals and some of the community-based services - the nursing services - points to extraordinarily dedicated nurses and midwives working in what are becoming impossible conditions. The circumstances were very difficult and demanding, leading to demoralisation and burnout, but I am now seeing conditions that are inhumane. Ms NÍ Sheaghdha used the word "inhumane" recently. I acknowledge the work the nurses and midwives are doing to keep the system going in what are inhumane conditions.

I read through the INMO opening statement last night with a mixture of despair and frustration that the INMO needed to come here asking for something as basic as a workforce plan. There are something like 30,000 nurses and midwives in the system and we have thousands of doctors in the system, and the idea that there is not a plan for training, recruitment, retention and promotion of nurses and midwives in our hospital system beggars belief. As the INMO lays out, there was a Government commitment to do so. Is it the case the HSE does not have a workplace plan for nurses and midwives for 2018, 2919 or 2020? Is that essentially what the INMO is saying?