Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We need to put in place a strategic plan to ensure everybody is assisted. In an article posted last weekend, a psychiatric nurse said that psychiatric nurses were bottom of the pile as they struggled to get lifts to work from emergency personnel. She also said: "For some unfortunate reason people must think mental health goes away when the snow comes. Or, maybe we are not seen as "real nurses"." Further on in the article she states: "These are the kind of nurses you are losing to other countries." Yellow, orange and red alerts aside, we need a plan to assist everybody such that no one is left limbo. People must know that if they cannot get to work, they will be protected.

In regard to the rural areas, surely when we experience these weather events the councils could contract farmers, who are the heartbeat of local communities, to assist them. I could go on about livestock, grants for sheds that have fallen down and so on. We need a strategic plan.

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