Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak on this motion. I fully support the nurses' pay claims and welcome their representatives here today. As the INMO has made clear, its members can be comprehended within the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020. As per section 3 of that agreement, the Public Service Pay Commission examined the underlying difficulties in the recruitment and retention of staff and issued its report in September 2018. Its purpose was to recommend measures to address the recruitment and retention difficulties. The proposals that came from the Public Service Pay Commission were considered at a special delegate conference of the INMO on 26 September 2018 and the decision of that conference was that the recommendations would not solve the difficulties in recruitment and retention and, therefore, that all public sector members should be balloted. As we all know, this is an action of last resort. It is indicative not just of the complete and utter failure of this incompetent and abysmal Minister for Health, it is also a sign that there is no political will to listen to the nurses. That applies also to the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath. The Independent Alliance has a position and it should use it rather than talking about Santa Claus and knocking on doors on Christmas Eve. Its members are in government. In terms of the tail wagging the dog, they are not wagging anyone's tail. They have done nothing for the people. They have abandoned them.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, has outlined the impact on service delivery and patient care as a result of the non-implementation of A Vision for Change, for example, the removal of 76% of beds and the development of only 30% of community services. It is appalling in Tipperary where there is not one long-stay psychiatric bed. According to the PNA, to currently maintain these inadequate and minimal services, the mental health services have an unsustainable reliance on agency nurses and overtime as a consequence of the inability to recruit and retain nurses. The HSE spends €1 million on agency nurses and €300,000 on overtime each week in the mental health services. This over-reliance on agency and overtime is detrimental to the provision of a comprehensive mental health service.

This is damning. What will it take for this atrocious Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to resign or be fired? He is walking the Irish health service into total meltdown yet he remains in place when any other Minister with an ounce of political humility would have offered his resignation or be dragged or kicked out by his colleagues but there is not a peep out of them. When the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, was on this side of the House he was well able to jump up and down and there was nothing he would not do but now he has the price of power and he has abandoned the people.

As if this strike was not bad enough, I recently received an email from a paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, and a member of the PNA. This person wanted to make me aware of impending strike action within the National Ambulance Service on the 22 January. This will result in widespread disruption in the provision of services to the public, particularly in rural areas. There we have it. Abandon the people, let them die in the fields. Any of us who go into the accident and emergency departments in the hospitals know what the nurses do. We know how hard they work and their dedication to duty. It is a vocation for 99% of them. They do their best and we give them no support, only lipservice.

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