Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

If I might add to that, the important point is we have agreements. We have patient safety-critical agreements that specify the number of nurses who must be employed to provide safe care. The framework on nurse staffing is Government policy. It does not exist as far as the new world is concerned because it is not protected. For those agreements to be honoured, they must be protected, that is, funding has to be red-circled to make sure we maintain the numbers required to provide safe care. If we do not, then the employer is in breach of agreements with their workforce. It is as simple as that.

For example, we recently did a review of ED staffing, and there are 419 whole-time equivalent vacancies - that is confirmed - across our EDs. We are going into the winter. Today, I think we counted just under 600 patients on trolleys. This is what we are facing. This is what the workforce is now facing.

Senator Black asked what would encourage people to stay. What would encourage nurses and midwives to stay is safe staffing levels across every aspect of the service, that is, acute, maternity, children's, community, long-term care and ID services. When you go to work and you have correct numbers on your roster that are safe, that is a different scenario entirely. We know this to be true because there is evidence from where that exists. In California, New South Wales and other states in Australia, they have introduced staffing ratios and they are mandated by legislation to ensure they can never not do it, and then their retention is much improved.

We are saying it is now time to enact the patient safety licensing legislation. It has to happen because the patients are not being well served by the current focus on, "You are over your budget; therefore, cut your staff". That leads to poor, catastrophic and fatal outcomes and it is not what our members want to work in. That is not the service they want to work in.