Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have a chance to talk on this very important motion. I thank Sinn Féin for allowing us to do so. We have to support our nurses. It is very clear that nurses are leaving their places of work every day. On one particular day in Tralee hospital, six nurses left together. Donie Doody of SIPTU says that we need 100 new nursing posts to be filled in University Hospital Kerry. There has been no elective surgery carried out since the first week of September. Can the Minister of State imagine that? The corridors of Tralee hospital are lined with elderly people who are waiting for two or three days. That is not acceptable. This Government and Deputies here in the Dáil have been praising the nurses but what we must do is pay them properly. They are not being paid properly at present. They should be allowed to register for free. They are being charged €100 to register. What are we doing for them? We are charging them to go to work by charging more carbon tax on the petrol and diesel their cars use. At the same time, the Taoiseach is in Scotland promising €200 million or more. He pulled €200 million out of his pocket yesterday to help with climate change. If he is there saecula saeculorum, he will not change the weather or do anything to improve it. We are after having a bad week in Kerry but he will do nothing to improve the weather. On top of that, €200 million or more is promised towards combating climate change for the next ten years while we cannot pay our nurses in Tralee hospital or around the country and yet expect them to work. They are driven down to the ground. Nursing is a vocation. Nurses have to be caring and have to be trained to the last to do the job. Despite this, we will not train them properly.

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