Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

They are the people who deliver immunisation programmes. As I mentioned to the Taoiseach on Leaders' Questions, they are taking industrial action. At a time when they have never proven their value to society more, they are being forced to take industrial action because the Government has shown them zero respect in terms of their status and giving them status as consultant specialists, but also in the fact that we have one third of the recommended public health staffing complement. How on earth are they supposed to deliver a vaccination programme as well as the contact tracing and testing that is necessary? To my mind, that is sort of indicative of the wider need for co-ordination in order that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and they have joined-up priorities.

Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of graduate entry medical students at a time when we desperately need more doctors, such as for our public health teams. I met them last week. They are paying €15,000 in fees. They cannot manage it and are all saying they may have to drop out and so on. They are experiencing major financial difficulties at a time when the State should be assisting them to qualify so that we have more doctors.

I raised a similar issue with regard to student nurses and midwives. The Taoiseach did not really respond on this issue. When I met several hundred of them in an online meeting last week, one after another, the student nurses and midwives who we need and have been holding together the front line said they would not work for the HSE in a blue fit once they are qualified because it is treating them so badly. They said they will be leaving as soon as they are qualified.

The State is haemorrhaging the nurses, midwives and doctors it needs because it is treating them so badly. When will there be a moment of enlightenment, as we face a pandemic, when it becomes obvious we need more health professionals, including more doctors, nurses and midwives? When will there be joined-up thinking and a realisation that we should stop putting obstacles in the way of these people actually training, completing their education and then wanting to work in our public health services? That is the sort of co-ordination that I think is very sadly missing at a time when we need it most.

See this speech in context