Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives of nurses and midwives to the Public Gallery. I compliment Deputy O'Reilly on bringing forward this motion and I confirm my support for it.

We all know there is a recruitment and retention crisis in the health service. We also know that nurses and midwives do invaluable work in our hospitals and health services right across the country and are absolutely dedicated to their profession. They are working above and beyond the call of duty on an ongoing basis. The pressure they work under is unremitting; it is not just now and again. They work in a highly pressurised environment, which results from things such as the moratorium introduced in 2007, the reduction in nursing numbers, pay reductions and, of course, the two-tier pay system. While all of that was happening, our hospitals experienced increased activity levels. My local hospital, South Tipperary General Hospital, is working at approximately 125% capacity, when the accepted maximum level would be approximately 85%. There were 750 patients on trolleys at South Tipperary General Hospital in 2011, compared with over 7,000 in 2017. That is an indication of the pressurised work environment in which people are working. Physical assaults on nurses have increased to a rate of approximately 34 per month. That situation resulted in a reduction in nursing staff by approximately 3,000 between 2000 and 2017.

The national maternity strategy, which requires an additional 200 midwives in 2017-2018, is completely off track. In January 2017, there were 1,461 midwives. By January of this year we had lost 52, leaving a total of 1,409. There is already a deficit. Psychiatric services face the same situation. There are approximately 500 vacancies in that area. In St. Loman's in Tallaght, there are 52 vacancies, which represents 20% of the staffing requirement. There are 64 vacancies in Portrane, which, again, is 20% of the staffing requirement. In Waterford, Louth, Meath, south Tipperary and other places, the situation is repeated. On top of that, A Vision For Change requires 1,400 addition staff in that area.

We are operating in a global market. Nurses are very scarce and we are competing with other countries that are offering much better pay and conditions. It is absolutely key that pay and conditions of employment are improved and that pay inequality is addressed by this Government as a matter of urgency.

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