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

The rate of staff turnover for nurses and midwives is 7.9%. This should not be the case. It should be a career for life and somewhere people want to work and stay because we really need them to stay but the workplaces are unsafe. It is regrettable that there are accident and emergency departments where staff are exposed to a level of risk and do not have a security presence. The Minister uses the phrase "in or nearby". That is not good enough. Whether or not we say assaults may have decreased slightly or we include or exclude mental health, the fact is that there is an unacceptably high level of assaults against front-line staff. They are bearing the brunt of staff shortages and all that goes along with that. The physical presence of a security guard in an accident and emergency department is an active deterrent. I can tell the Minister this because I have also spoken to the INMO and health service unions. That is not happening and it needs to happen. We need a commitment to ensure that this will happen in every single emergency department.

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