Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

Yes, 12 hospitals out of all of the acute hospitals have been funded to implement the safe staffing strategy on surgical medical wards. The remainder do not have it. In 2019, €5 million was allocated but was not spent. We know that to get the framework implemented over three years will take a minimum of €10 million per year. Last year's budget did not allocate €10 million. The budget for 2019, 2020 and 2021 should have allocated €10 million. To date, €15 million has been allocated. We know the savings that come from implementing the framework, as I set out earlier, are significant. It is now Government policy.

In our view, the framework which measures how many nurses and healthcare assistants are required and what mix is needed on surgical and medical wards needs to be underpinned by legislation. Otherwise, it will just be a policy that sits on a shelf and somebody will decide not to allocate the money that is required every October. Fundamentally, we know that it works and that where it has been implemented it saves on agency costs and improves retention and patient outcomes. Fewer people are readmitted to hospital when we have the correct nursing staff levels because they get their care on time.

Phase 2 of the framework on emergency departments is now being examined by University College Cork, led by Professor Jonathan Drennan. This will be the first time anywhere in the world that staffing levels for emergency departments will be examined in this way. That needs to be funded and implemented quickly across the 29 hospitals.

Nurses went on strike in order to ensure we had a measurement tool and funding to implement safe staffing. That was one of the fundamental issues they raised and felt strongly enough about that they took industrial action. The settlement of that action related to a Labour Court recommendation which sets out that over three years the funding must be made available to implement the safe staffing strategy, but that has not happened over the three years in question, namely 2019, 2020 and 2021. Today, 12 hospitals have implemented the framework on surgical and medical wards. It is not good enough.