Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Higgins for her damning indictment of 12 years of Fine Gael in power. It was pretty powerful.

I commend all the staff who work in hospitals and in our community care services. Just this afternoon, we attended a tree-planting service for those who died during Covid. Some of those were our doctors, our nurses, cleaners and other staff who worked on the front line in the direct firing line of Covid. We can never fully understand what they went through during that period. That really tough and difficult time was preceded by a time when there were already massive problems in staffing and resources. This experience made those seeking help, very sick people looking for care, being forced to wait for hours and sometimes days in emergency departments, in absolutely horrendous conditions, leaving staff to deal with angry and frustrated patients.

We have a mental health crisis with people trying to access urgent and emergency care. It is not a service that any Minister or government could stand over. I know of individuals who have waited ten to 20 hours on multiple occasions for help and support to be simply given an appointment as far away as three weeks to see a psychiatrist. Mental health care is in crisis with community and voluntary therapeutic service providers talking on the radio today about filling in those gaps in the service.

Just yesterday we heard a nurse and other mental health professionals talking about leaving the country. They are on their second eviction notice and cannot find anywhere to live. That is not to mention the cost of a property if they do manage to find one. They said that they love Ireland and that they love working and living here and they love the people but they cannot find a safe, affordable and secure place to live. Our own student nurses, doctors and health professionals are leaving en massebecause of the housing crisis. We can provide all the workforce planning in the world but if they have nowhere to live then they will not stay here and we will not encourage others to come into our health service.

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