Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments have reduced our health service to a permanent state of crisis through years of underfunding, privatisation and neoliberal mismanagement. Now, the Government is forcing through a recruitment freeze that will make the crisis even worse. I heard the Taoiseach's reply earlier to Deputy Kenny. He seems to be denying the fact that there is a recruitment crisis because there will be 2,000 extra staff in a total workforce of 140,000. It is in black and white in the memo from HSE chief executive officer, Bernard Gloster, that a recruitment freeze is happening. Does the Taoiseach accept this? Heathcare workers are already heroically shouldering workloads that should be shared out among thousands more staff. The Government has a massive surplus that could transform our health service into a proper, single-tier, universal health service with no waiting lists, but instead it is doing the opposite and imposing a recruitment freeze. The INMO has threatened industrial action if the recruitment freeze goes ahead. Medical scientists are preparing for industrial action next month. Will the Taoiseach call off the recruitment freeze and guarantee significant pay increases for all healthcare workers?

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