Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and will support this Private Member's Bill on nursing recruitment and retention put forward by Deputy O'Reilly of Sinn Féin. Trying to run a modern fit-for-purpose health service, faced with increasing demand and changing demographics, on minimum funding and a short-term strategy does not work. That is what previous governments have done. The problem of retaining qualified nursing nurses and midwives is yet another example of the need for a new approach to providing healthcare as outlined in the Sláintecare ten year strategy report, alongside a commitment to financially increase funding in the service.

The "Bring them home" campaign was a complete failure. Launched in July 2015, it targeted 500 nurses and midwives employed in the UK. Only 91 were enticed to return to work in the Irish public health service and of them 40 left prior to fulfilling a year's service. The central issue here is pay and conditions. Comparison with other countries, particularly the countries our qualified highly trained nurses emigrate to such as Australia, the USA, Canada and the UK, shows Irish nurses work longer hours for less pay. To attract graduates and entice them home that has to be reversed to fewer hours and more pay.

There are now 2,500 fewer nurses in comparison with 2007 which, along with the general crisis in the health service, has created a very stressful working environment which adds to the problem of retaining staff. Under the national maternity strategy, the appointment of an additional 96 midwife posts in 2017 was a failure too. The total number of midwives in January was 1,461 and by August that had fallen to 1,408. Instead of the workforce growing by 96 it decreased by 52.

Figures show a high level of burnout. The Nurse Forecasting Study in Europe, RN4CAST, was a cross-sectional observational study of ten European countries. Ireland was second highest in the list of countries where nurses describe burnout as their primary reason for leaving. The figure for assaults is staggering. It went up from 673 on 1 January 2011 to 3,462 on 27 July 2016.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, quite correctly sees the key problem as pay inequality. Over 90% of nursing staff are female. That is no accident. Historically, women associated with caring have been less valued than others in "real" jobs. Despite having a high level of qualification, nurses and midwives are paid less than other healthcare professionals with the same level of qualification requirements. A graduate garda starts on an annual salary of €31,000 but nursing graduates after four years' training start at €28,900.

In addition there is, as in the teaching professions, a lower pay level for new entrants into nursing since 2011. We have a two-tier health service with the two-tier payscale for new entrants. In 2016, in the staff nurse grade 2,573 started and 2,271 of them have left, 71% having resigned not retired. There is a huge crisis in our health service which must be linked to the implementation of the Sláintecare report which must be implemented urgently so nurses and midwives feel they have some structure to work within.

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