Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In the push for productivity and savings which, again, we all support, I would not like to see a slippage in the standards of the working life and workers' rights within the HSE. I noticed that when we removed the recruitment ban, the IMO made comments about the staff ceiling and asked if that was a proxy for a recruitment ban. I thought a lot about the fact that so many non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, are working hours that are unacceptable and very difficult and I do not want to say they definitely put people at risk but they are certainly not ideal. In the push for these savings and productivity increases, how are we ensuring that we are still tackling those issues that were there already and hopefully not exacerbating them but that we are actively working to improve conditions for young doctors, nurses and all those staff?