Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion, which is timely. It is about time serious consideration was given to the role that nurses have played in this country generally and particularly over the past two years. It is a shocking indictment that nurses have to take to the streets and protest for what they have long been promised and for the recognition they deserve.

I welcome the Minister's announcement that the booster vaccine will be extended to healthcare workers. Like other Members, I do not know why there was a delay in this. It is an obvious move. They should be very much at the top of the queue. Apart from the fact that so many nurses put themselves in danger each day, we know that as a result of their contact with patients with Covid-19 approximately 3,500 healthcare workers are off due to Covid-19 and approximately 10% of those will have the effects of long Covid. The fact that the booster vaccine will be provided to them over the coming weeks will undoubtedly protect them and will also protect the capacity of the health service.

However, I reiterate the point I made earlier that vaccines alone will not protect nurses or healthcare workers generally. I believe we are repeating the mistakes that were made over the past year, whereby all the concentration was put on the vaccine programme. It is fantastic that there was the breakthrough with vaccines and that they were developed so quickly. The roll-out in this country was exceptionally good. However, all the emphasis was put on the vaccination programme, and other measures that could have been put in place more easily and in addition to the programme were more or less overlooked and neglected. To look back at what happened, we were late to adopt the recommendation to wear masks and we were late with regard to antigen testing. Antigen tests were recommended last March and it took a second expert group to recommend them six months later, but we are only starting to use them now in a minor way when other countries have been using them for more than a year on a widespread basis. We have been exceptionally late in recognising that Covid-19 is an airborne virus. I cannot understand why the Government has not acted on this. It has been known since the summer of last year that Covid-19 is an airborne virus. Straightforward measures could have been taken, which would have substantially reduced the spread of Covid-19 but for some unknown reason those measures were not taken.

We are now at a point of facing into the winter with a complete underestimation of the impact of seasonal conditions on the virus. The Minister announced more than 3,700 cases this evening. That figure far exceeds the projections made by NPHET under the most pessimistic scenario, and it is far earlier than NPHET predicted any such numbers.

It predicted under a pessimistic scenario 2,500 to 3,000 cases per day during November. Today on 2 November, we have far exceeded that prediction. What steps will be taken now to reverse those figures or even to contain them? I am not hearing that from the Minister, nor am I hearing it from NPHET. Many practical measures could be taken, particularly with ventilation. I cannot understand why the Government is ignoring those. This has been established as good practice in many other countries.

The Government has done the minimal amount in schools by providing CO2 monitors very late in the day. It has refused to provide any kind of air purification systems. Equally, in hospitality there is no requirement to have proper standards of ventilation. In most European countries, hospitality settings are required to display the reading from the CO2 monitor in the front window, and people can choose whether to go into unsafe circumstances.

Last month, people were advised to go back to work in the complete absence of any kind of guidelines or limits in respect of how to measure CO2 levels, how to ensure proper ventilation, and what steps to take when the air is infected and unsafe. I cannot understand why the Government is not doing that and, equally, I cannot understand why it has not adopted antigen testing.

It is great that healthcare workers will get the booster vaccination, but if the Government repeats the mistake of putting all the eggs in the basket of vaccination, this will not work. Unfortunately, we know that vaccinations have disappointed. I fully accept that was not known six months ago. There are breakthroughs. We also know at this point that vaccination does not help to stop transmission.

For nurses and healthcare workers generally, as well as the booster vaccines, steps need to be taken to ensure the air in hospitals, many of which are very old buildings, and other healthcare facilities is safe. We need to ensure infected air is dealt with in hospitals particularly, but also in all the other settings I have mentioned.

I ask the Minister to consider arranging urgent briefings for the Opposition on the steps that will be taken. We have not had a briefing for many months and there have hardly been any this year. I appeal to him to bring in the Opposition spokespersons or party leaders and provide a thorough briefing on the plans to deal with the unfolding dire situation.

I repeat the points others made about the enormous impact of Covid highlighted in the IMO survey. The burnout that was common pre-pandemic is now rampant in many healthcare settings. ICU nurses in St. Vincent's hospital report that they are at breaking point due to staff shortages. They are forced to use a baby monitor to watch patients in ICU because they do not have enough staff. Is it any wonder such a high proportion of nurses are saying they intend to emigrate to go to work in healthcare systems that actually work and where governments are serious about reform?

The long-fingering of Sláintecare is a significant factor in this regard. Nurses and other healthcare workers are waiting for reform that has not been delivered and they will lose further confidence in the Irish healthcare system. We were promised more healthcare staff but only a fraction of those have been recruited this year. Nurses feel very unsupported by Government, something we will pay an enormous price for unless it is addressed as a matter of urgency. We need to get to a point where we have safe and adequate staffing levels. We are very far from that at this point. Nurses deserve better, patients deserve better and the public deserves better.

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