Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today is a sad day for the health service with 35,000 nurses throughout Ireland on the picket lines. This is not a decision they took easily or lightly. To hear the individual stories of nurses and of the challenges they face every day in their working lives is heartbreaking. The Government has repeatedly ignored nurses as they warn of major problems in recruitment and retention. We are too late to stop the strike today but it is not too late to stop the other five days of threatened action, the further cancellation of appointments, the further upset for nurses and patients alike. I do not expect the Taoiseach to repeat all the answers he has given already because I listened carefully to them and they have not filled me with hope. Can the Taoiseach please give some hope to the nurses and the patients today however?

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