Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Aire Stáit for coming in tonight and the energy which she has brought to her role. She really puts her heart into her job. It is refreshing to see and I am grateful for that. I will emphasise my concerns about the crude system the HSE seems to have for long-stay beds. It seems to be based purely on chronological factors alone. Yet, in this case I have highlighted, which is just one case, age is a particular issue. Máire Bean Uí Bheaglaíoch is 96 years of age.

We have an teanga, which is a very important matter, not only in terms of well-being, but the basic day-to-day communications. Nurses in Killarney cannot understand her mother tongue. Her native language is Irish and she has difficulty understanding the nurses. That is both dangerous and very unsettling. In this case, there was also the length of time spent in the facility already and the element of having settled in. There are numerous other factors as well, such as the distance her family would have to travel. One would go from Cork to Dublin in the time it would take to get from Baile na nGall to Killarney and back home again. On humanitarian grounds, I ask that this case be revisited.

On the broader issue, we need to take a different approach. The HSE has to accept it has failed in its approach to date. It cannot continue the approach. It has to do something exceptionally different. The nurses simply are not coming. It needs to look at more flexible working arrangements and providing better incentives for people. I call on the Minister of State to engage for the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Minister for Rural and Community Development on a cross-departmental approach, as was advocated by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, last week, to see whether we can try to help the situation through a number of Departments combining their efforts.

We need to acknowledge the peripherality of Dingle, in that nurses are located very far away. They will need extra incentives to come there or more flexible arrangements need to be given to qualified nurses in the locality who cannot take up employment. Other ideas are also welcome.

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