Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that there is no sense from the Government about the emergency we are facing. The INMO does not take industrial action lightly. According to its statements, the reason nurses and midwives feel compelled to take industrial action is that 10,000 patients were left waiting on trolleys during the month of February. They make this absolutely clear. For example, the president of the INMO said:

Safe staffing should not be a pipe dream for nurses. Patients should be made aware of the severity of the staffing deficits our members are trying to work through. Hospital management in each location cannot keep trying to fill from an empty cup.

Her statement goes on. This is now increasingly true of teachers and workers in a series of other professions which are having difficulty recruiting and retaining. Central to that, but not the only issue, is the following issue. The Minister referred to the new housing that has been built. In the area around St. Vincent's University Hospital, every newly completed apartment block that is coming on stream, because they are private for-profit apartment blocks, cost between €2,500, €3,000, €3,500 and €4,000 per month to rent. How is a nurse, a teacher or anybody else expected to pay that? They might as well not have built that stuff because people cannot afford it.

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