Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My questions again relate to staffing. Perhaps we can refrain from mentioning there is a global shortage as we all know that. What we specifically want to know is what is being done here. With regard to nursing recruitment, I presume if there is to be an expansion of service, we are going to need more qualified nurses than we have now. Given the likely timeline, those nurses are either doing their leaving certificate now or are just finished their first year in nursing. In terms of how they are to be phased in, can Children's Health Ireland give us an idea of the numbers and whether it has sourced these nurses? I met some of the student nurses. A recent survey from the INMO indicates those nurses have no intention of waiting here and working within the health service, and they have every intention of emigrating. From my previous work, I know that cohort of workers very well. Traditionally, they would go away for a year and come back, but they are not coming back. Is there a specific plan in place? Is there any incentivisation? Is anything being done with the universities? Have any of the nurses given anything like a commitment that they are going to stay? Without the staff, we just have a massively expensive building in which no services can be delivered. It is the aspiration of the Oireachtas Members to work with the people in this room because we all want to see the hospital built. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine it is going to be staffed, given the absolute crisis in staffing that exists within the health service at the moment.