Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

University Hospital Limerick, UHL, recorded the highest number of patients on trolleys in the country for October according to monthly trolley watch figures compiled by the INMO. UHL saw 1,349 patients on trolleys over the month of October and was followed by Letterkenny University Hospital with 943, University Hospital Galway with 829 and Cork University Hospital with 688. UHL has experienced some of the worst overcrowding in recent times with a total of 1,080 people being treated on trolleys. How can we talk about data protection and the general data protection regulation, GDPR, in these conditions?

The only way for the Government to help the nurses is to pay them appropriately. It has spent millions upon millions on hospital buildings but has not invested a penny in the nurses and student nurses. It is a bit like the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who wants everyone to go electric when we have no electricity to run the car. We have nurses who want to nurse and to care for the vulnerable people in this country but all the Government does is hire manager after manager. It should invest the money in the nursing staff. They are the ones who looked after us during the pandemic and who look after us, and everyone in our families, every day. Despite this, the Government came forward with only a small token. It is not good enough. The Government must think outside the box. The engine of this country's hospitals are the nurses. The Government must invest in them and treat them fairly. It must also stop thinking up the out-of-this-world things it comes up with but does not provide backing for. The Government must trust the nurses.

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