Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, an Teachta Cullinane, for bringing forward this very important motion and join others in thanking not just our nurses and midwives but all the workers in our health service and those who have gone above and beyond during the Covid-19 pandemic to keep us safe. They went voluntarily into dangerous situations and to where we needed them to be to keep us safe. We can never praise them highly enough for what they did but, of course, we could pay them. Nothing says "I value you" like payment.

I take issue with a number of Deputies' use of the term "vocation" in respect of nursing. Nursing is a job. Nurses are not angels; they are workers. They do not have a calling; they are trained. We absolutely need them, but they do not float in on clouds to work. Unfortunately, they must trudge through the traffic like the rest of us. We absolutely need to recognise that. The Government fails to grasp the importance of the work nurses do because it is sometimes tinged with that vocation talk, which is deeply unhelpful and indeed somewhat disrespectful to the men and women who are, as we all say, on the front line.

I wish to refer specifically to the provision in the motion regarding mental health and to refer to the INMO survey. As I said, nursing is a job. It is a bloody tough job. It will absolutely take it out of you on a normal day. Pre-Covid, I represented nurses and midwives and I was never, ever short of admiration for the work they do. I do not know how they put themselves into those situations. During the Covid pandemic it has been multiple times worse. The INMO survey shows that 22% of our nursing workforce contracted Covid and that 62% cared for people who died with Covid.

They will be dealing with that for years. Given what they saw and what they were forced to endure to keep us safe, the least the Government can and should do is pay them when they are working. Pay them; it is not a hobby and it is not a vocation. I understand that a member of the Labour Party was in here to give out to us as the lead party of opposition. That Deputy would do well to reflect on the fact that the very same nurses and midwives we laud in here had their sick pay entitlement cut in half the last time that Deputy's party had the chance. That is how they treat public service workers and we will not take a lecture from that party.

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