Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue is very serious. My local hospital in Letterkenny had seven ambulances parked outside on Sunday night. Patients were being treated in the forecourt of Letterkenny University Hospital in ambulances because there was no capacity. A total of 11 beds were closed within the hospital because of staffing shortages. As the Tánaiste says, many are out sick. Up to 180 are either close contacts or Covid-19 positive themselves.

We have the statistics. What concerns me is that hundreds of nurses who are qualified and job-ready with completed clearance under the Be On Call for Ireland programme have not been deployed. There are currently 268 in the pool of doctors. There are 1,491 in total in the pool. More than half of these are job-ready but they have not been deployed. Some 200 examinations had to be cancelled for nurses who were willing to come to this country. Applications made as far back as November still have not been processed. These people are supposed to be taking up positions in community settings and different hospitals throughout the State but the visa application system is preventing them.

I will finish on this point. We all absolutely recognise the work of front-line workers but when people are willing to step forward, we have a responsibility to take some of the pressure off those in the system and ensure all the red tape is taken away. Will the Tánaiste answer those questions?

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