Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The issue of 11 beds being closed at Linn Dara in Cherry Orchard was raised in the Chamber yesterday. This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to staff shortages. I want to list the theatres throughout the country where there have been closures because of staff shortages, as I believe this is a symptom of something else. Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, had two full theatre closures over a six-week period due to staffing shortages, while Temple Street Children’s University Hospital had one theatre closure for the same reason. Theatre closures were reported in all constituent hospitals at the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. At St. James’s Hospital, there were two to three theatres closed per day, depending on nursing shortages on the rota. In St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, an elective theatre closed because of staffing shortages. A new theatre had not opened in Wexford General Hospital due to the difficulty in securing specialty theatre nursing staff. This is a symptom of something much bigger, and that something bigger is pay and conditions for nurses.

I want to move on to something equally crucial which nobody has picked up on in the Chamber this week. A report in The Irish Timesthis week on mental health assessments for children is quite damning. The report states:

There were 2,520 children and young people on waiting lists for an initial assessment for mental health services in February 2017, an increase of 44 per cent on the same period last year, according to the HSE. ... Barnardos has said these delays are having “long-term unnecessary consequences” on children and “affecting every aspect of their development”. ... It found almost 60 per cent have been waiting for more than a year while a quarter (26 per cent) have been waiting more than two years for an initial appointment.

I find this incredible. The reason Linn Dara has a shortage of nurses is that nurses are emigrating for better pay and conditions. The past year has seen systematic cuts to their conditions and pay. We are living not only with a two-tier health system but a two-tier pay system, whereby nurses and medical professionals are going to the private sector rather than the public sector.

The mantra of Fine Gael over the past six years has been to create the conditions for growth and prosperity. However, the Taoiseach and his party have created the conditions for this crisis. Fundamentally, I think the Taoiseach is a very decent man, but how can he, after six years, turn around, hold his head high and say that, in his tenure as Taoiseach, this was a success?

I would actually find that embarrassing as a member of the party he is in and as a citizen of this country. How can the Taoiseach justify those cuts and that shortage in this country?

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