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

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on behalf of the nurses tonight. I recognise their pay claim and support it 100%. I am glad to see many nurses in the Gallery. There are some from Kerry. We are glad to see them here and we support them 100%. We have four Ministers and Ministers of State with responsibility for health. Deputy Finian McGrath is one of them. I am sure they are all well paid. We cannot do without nurses. It is a fact that many young graduates are going abroad because they can get properly remunerated and work under better conditions. I was very sad the other evening when I met a girl who I knew very well wearing a neck brace. She will never work again because she was assaulted in her workplace where she worked as a nurse. She tried to go back to work twice but has been told she is in serious danger of being invalided if she tries to work again. That is her story after giving so much to patients and supporting and working for our health system. We all know how hard nurses work. There are too few of them on the ground. We know the kind of pressure they are under. I was in Tralee general hospital when my father was there. There are always patients pressing the button, which is their right, looking for help and assistance. Someone has to come to them and it is the nurse who has to do so. There are not enough of them at present in our hospitals. I especially thank the nurses who work in Tralee general hospital, Bon Secours, Killarney community hospital, Dingle, Bantry, Cahersiveen and Killarney, who work so hard to attend to patients. I see the pressure they are under when they take over the shift and do their rota. They have to do so much paperwork before they get going that they are then behind because there are patients in need of attention. We all know the pressure they are under. It is no problem for the Government to give three times as much to the children's hospital as was planned. It is three or four times the original cost. That is what is happening. The Government is not on top of its game at all. One thing we are sure-----

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