Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Figures released by the HSE reveal that since the beginning of 2021, more than 3,400 nurses have been assaulted. That means seven nurses are being assaulted in our hospitals each week. If we consider all staff, then that figure goes up to 5,600 incidents of physical, verbal and sexual assault. These figures were provided to my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, in response to a parliamentary question.

In talking about her experience, one nurse described the accident and emergency department as "a pressure cooker", with "aggression [...] causing junior nurses to quit", while she no longer feels safe in her workplace. It is completely unacceptable that people are in this position. Our nurses and hospital staff need to be protected. We must acknowledge that overcrowding in our hospitals is, in the words of the president of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, Karen McGowan, "a recipe for disaster", which has increased anxiety and the risk of aggression. What measures are we going to take to ensure the safety of our nurses and hospital staff? Does the Minister agree that we need to urgently bring forward an accident and emergency department plan to tackle waiting times and overcrowding?

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