Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad of the opportunity to talk on this important matter. Nurses are under severe pressure in University Hospital Kerry, Killarney Community Hospital, Kenmare and Dingle hospitals and Bantry General Hospital, to which many people from our side of the country go. I remember only too well the intensive care unit of Tralee general hospital as my father was there for many weeks. The night shift used to come on at 8 p.m. and they were to be there until 8 a.m. the following morning. If one was missing, they still carried on. They had to carry on because there was no one to make up the numbers and they had to do the work regardless. The amount of paperwork and work that they do, as well as the load they carry is entirely unfair. When we hear that the HSE is hiring management vis-à-visfront-line staff at the rate of three to one, it is totally unfair. It is the height of blackguarding. The Minister of State is one of five Ministers with responsibility for health in total. Why do they not do something about it?

I raised the case during the Order of Business the other day of a girl who wanted to come back to get a higher degree in nursing. She gave 23 and a half years in this country before she went. She was away for three and a half years and now she will have to pay double for her course because she was out of the country for more than three of the last five years. She will not qualify for a SUSI grant either. How can the Government expect people to come home when these kinds of regulations are put upon them? This girl had given 24 and a half years of her life in Ireland. She was born here and is one of our own, bred and reared. The rules and regulations are militating against them and that is why they are not coming back. They do not have the right conditions. They are overloaded. They are driven down through the ground with work.

The Government is not listening to us. We have five Ministers for health and a Government that is not listening to the people when we are calling for more front-line staff. What are they doing? Employing more managers. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. That is the truth.

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