Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This morning, there are 425 people on hospital trolleys, including 14 children. There are 63 people on trolleys in Limerick, for example, 34 in Cork University Hospital and 34 in Tallaght Hospital. I could go on and recite the litany right across the State. In my opening remarks I said that there is only one application for every four nursing and midwifery vacancies in the system. The Taoiseach has acknowledged and accepted that there is a crisis at the heart of our health system, yet he seems unprepared to do what is necessary to resolve it. The very last thing that we need now is industrial action by nurses and midwives. The HSE will only introduce its winter plan at the end of November. That is how far behind the curve the system is in dealing with the burden of health care. The nurses have a legitimate claim and grievance. The Taoiseach has said the Government will engage with all of the unions. What form will that engagement take? He cited the industrial relations apparatus, with which I am more than familiar, but it will take more than that. Will the Taoiseach and the Ministers for Finance and Health meet the unions? Will they sit down, face to face, around the table to seek a resolution to this crisis?

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