Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the contributors. I am standing in for our health spokesperson, Deputy Gino Kenny, today. I thank all the healthcare workers and those present today for the fantastic work they have done under extremely difficult circumstances. This includes ambulance drivers, porters, nurses, doctors and midwives. Across the whole gamut, they have had a very difficult time. Unfortunately, things are not improving for them, based on what they have told us. I am certainly aware of the horror stories of people spending hours on trolleys or months and sometimes years on waiting lists. It is beyond shocking. I recently met somebody who told me they would not get community mental health care for two years. I could not believe it. We are facing a mental health crisis and people cannot get seen for two years. It is a staggering level of dysfunction.

My first question is for Ms Ní Sheaghdha and Ms McGowan, as a working nurse in an emergency department. I was shocked to hear today that we only have safe staffing levels in 12 of 29 hospitals. Three years after we identified that we needed to address that as a matter of priority, only 12 of 29 hospitals have safe staffing levels. That is very shocking. What does not having safe staffing levels mean for the patients? What does it mean for the staff? I am aware of people working in emergency departments facing physical aggression and sometimes assault. Is one aspect of not having safe staffing levels that the staff are actually putting themselves in very serious physical harm's way from possible assault or attacks?

During the Covid pandemic we highlighted the failure to pay student nurses who are on work placement. I thought it was unbelievable. Leaving aside the Covid pandemic, given that we desperately need more nurses it is incredible that we are making it difficult for nurses to do their training and get through their education with knock-on consequences for our ability to recruit and retain nurses and midwives. Those studying to become nurses in the UK get £10,000 a year as a bursary. That was actually a cut by the Tories; it used to be £15,000. It is multiples of what student nurses here get. I ask Ms Ní Sheaghdha and Ms McGowan to respond to those points. I also have some questions for the other groups if I have time.