Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

The Senator asked what the Joint Committee on Health can do. The first thing it can do is make sure that there is a policy decision that the moratorium on recruitment, if and when it is reintroduced, can never apply to nursing and midwifery, as it has in each of the moratoriums that have happened since 2008. It has not applied to consultants but it has applied to nurses and midwives.

We have, therefore, been constantly running to try and undo the damage done by the moratorium. One should remember that we are still very reliant on overseas recruitment from non-EU countries. That is a major issue right now, because we have a lot more evidence that this pandemic affects communities from the black, Asian and ethnic minority groupings to a greater extent. We have to look at that and put specific protections in place because we are very reliant on that community of healthcare workers in Ireland and that will continue into the future because there is a global shortage of nurses and midwives. The first ask, therefore, is policy to ensure that moratoriums cannot apply. Thankfully, we now have a scientific tool as part of Government policy to determine how many nurses we need but that must be funded and rolled out across the health service. We cannot just decide how many nurses and midwives we need based on the available resources. There will be science behind it and it will be based on the patient dependency. The framework on nursing and midwifery staffing is accepted as Government policy, but it has to be funded to be rolled out. If one wants to open one ICU bed, seven ICU nurses are needed. That is not possible to do overnight, so one has to pre-plan and put a lot of planning in place.

The health and well-being of all front-line health workers who have been battling this pandemic will be severely compromised. We have lodged a claim to have respite for them, hopefully when the number of admissions to hospitals and community care areas reduces, the workload reduces and the vaccines take hold and reduce infection rates. That must be addressed. The committee should promote that. We should do what other countries have done. We should show appreciation for the extra give in response to the ask. Compensation must be afforded to the health service workforce for that. Senator Hoey is very familiar with the student nurse issue. I have heard her speak on it previously but this committee must comment on it. It cannot be silent on it because it is exploitation. This is 2021 and we are in a pandemic and there is no excuse for trying to portray what student nurses have contributed as not being work. It is simply not credible.