Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

Okay. The number in question is 49,500 healthcare workers, but we do not have a breakdown by grade. There is a long way to go, given that people must have a first and then a second vaccination. There are nurses and midwives working in ICUs and emergency departments today who have not had their first vaccinations. They must be prioritised.

We worked hard to get the sequencing document, which has been in place since 12 January and was reiterated on 19 January. It is key. Those who are patient-facing, front-line healthcare workers have to be prioritised for a vaccine. It is a health and safety measure to ensure that their risk is mitigated. In our view, the State, through the HSA must have an involvement in ensuring that happens. Under the European directive, the HSA has a legal imperative to ensure that workplaces are safe. To date, we have been critical of the lack of focus on that imperative in respect of healthcare workers. Just because they are working in the health service does not mean their environment is safe. In fact, it is the opposite. We know that the rate of infection among workers in the health service is very high.

Those working on the front line of the health service, particularly women, are at higher risk. This is very problematic, and we must find out why it is. We cannot just look at it as we have been doing with the trolley count for years, nod our heads and say, "Yes, isn't it terrible?" This is very real. It is high risk. The after-effects of contracting Covid will be with us for a long time.

In respect of the service plan, we have had an agreement since 2016 that the HSE would sign off the service plan with the union in respect of the funded workforce plan for nursing and midwifery every November. It happened once in 2017. This year we still do not have a service plan for the health service, a funded workforce plan or otherwise, signed by the Minister. Today is 9 February. It is imperative to focus on how we staff the health service, what is funded and how we recruit, particularly now in a pandemic when we know that more than 6,000 staff are unable to come to work because of being affected themselves. It is a matter this committee should raise with the Minister for Health. Why is the service plan not signed off by 9 February?