Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government is a lovely document. It could have been written by Dame Barbara Cartland such is the level of fiction it contains. The programme commits the Government to implementing new procedures to ensure more efficient and timely recruitment of nurses. To be fair, the Government has set itself a target of recruiting 100 nurses each month. It is failing to reach that target, however, and is lucky to get 34 nurses a month. We now have a competition to be our next Taoiseach between the Ministers, Deputies Varadkar and Coveney. Neither candidate has given any indication that he has a plan. In his last few weeks in the role, can the Taoiseach send a message to nurses and health care professionals in respect of recruitment? Is he in a position to say that the Government is going to do something different? Clearly, what it is doing is not working. Nurses do not want to work in the health service as it is currently constituted. Has the Taoiseach something to say to them about how it is going to be different? The two lads who are vying for his job have precious little to say to them.

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