Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

I can, and our president, Ms Karen McGowan, who is an advanced nurse practitioner in Beaumont, can give the Deputy a first-hand account. The winter of 2019 was very busy. We had a lot of overcrowding and our members were very tired coming into February and March 2020 when the pandemic struck. When we hear the account by the HSE of changing capacity and surge capacity, what does it mean? It means nurses and midwives in the main changed their roles. Many of them moved from the areas where they practised and worked and went to work in intensive care surge capacity areas and changed their shifts and their attendance. They worked extra shifts and continued long after their shifts ended to make sure the patients were cared for. That is the reality.

Now, in the third surge, it has been more difficult because the requirement to provide high-level intensive care outside of intensive care units, with a total of 13 intensivists in the country, has put an enormous strain on the expertise of ICU nurses, who are in short supply, and on those who have assisted in recovery rooms and theatres. There are also Covid wards with very high dependency patients. Again, there is a high level of skill required. It is the perfect storm of very low staffing to begin with, high levels of sickness and the requirement for the same pool to provide continuously the extraordinary work they have been providing. This coupled with childcare means there are very real issues.

When our members heard about school closures they wondered how they were going to get to work. It is unfortunate that this is the second time decisions have been made at that level without taking into consideration the effect that would have on this population of essential workers.