Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will add to what previous speakers have said. In particular, where new building projects are happening, the Minister needs to insist that accommodation is co-located with major new builds for nurses and doctors who work in a hospital environment. I recently tabled a parliamentary question to ascertain where there was old nursing accommodation that is not being used in each hospital group. There is a little of it. Some is being transformed for office space. Where it exists, we need to seize the opportunity to reconvert it and retrofit it for nurses to use. The Minister's counterpart, the Tánaiste, yesterday told the Department of Defence that there was to be no more getting rid of old barrack accommodation because we have a housing crisis. The same needs to happen in the health service. When new build projects get under way, they must be co-located in hospital environments.

See this speech in context