Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil recognises and greatly values the contribution the nursing and midwife professions make to our healthcare, often in the most difficult and trying of circumstances, especially in the acute sector. We welcome the tabling of this motion and are supportive of the aims and objectives stated within it. I thank Sinn Féin for tabling it.

As the ESRI projections and the capacity review make clear, there will be significant increases in demand for healthcare over the next decade. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be approximately 1 million people in Ireland aged over 65 and by 2040, 440,000 of these will be aged 80 or more. The demands on the health services will be more acute than ever. Everyone hopes that as they grow older they will be supported to stay in their homes for as long as possible but, as we all know, this is not always possible. The levels of population aging will be associated with higher levels of disability and long-term ill-health and now is the time for planning and investment.

With an aging population, the acute hospital system, which is already overstretched to breaking point, will be unable to operate effectively unless there is more of a shift towards primary and community services as a principal means of meeting patients' needs. Therefore, the need to recruit and retain key staff, such as nurses, is absolutely imperative. Nurses and midwives are skilled, committed professionals who have a career, dependants, responsibilities and costs. They go over and above in terms of hours worked and they are very committed to their patients and their profession.

Fianna Fáil believes that the Government must set out a clear pathway for the delivery of full pay equality for new nurses. Since 2011, those who enter the nursing profession are on a much reduced pay scale compared with those who began working prior to 2011. This has led to serious financial difficulty for many young nurses, given the rocketing cost of rent and housing. It is deeply unfair that new nurses are paid significantly less than their established colleagues. These nurses are already working under intense pressure given the lack of resources in hospitals. This is then leading to nurses leaving to work abroad with better terms and conditions and a better quality of life available to them. We must stop this brain drain. We are losing our brightest, smartest and most qualified nurses to other countries and are experiencing many problems as a result The least that they deserve is to receive equal pay for equal work.

The report on pay equalisation in the public sector was a key demand made by Fianna Fáil in our discussions on the confidence and supply arrangement. This report has been published and there is now an onus on the Government to set out in detail how it will go about delivering pay equality for new nurses. It will help with the retention of nurses in the years ahead and will encourage more young people to enter what is, in many ways, a caring vocation.

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