Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting to note that the Government's line in response to this motion is that there is no recruitment freeze or embargo. According to the amendment to the Sinn Féin motion, recruitment is continuing for graduate nurses and doctors in training and that exemptions also apply in disability and a list of specified front-line and residential posts. However, senior people in University Hospital Kerry tell me they cannot recruit junior hospital doctors in non-training posts. They have sought clarification from the Department and are none the wiser because they have not received a reply. Despite the freeze being extended again - I note the HSE refuses to rule out further extensions - it now covers such a broad variety of positions that the effects are beginning to be seen in the hospital. Other people tell me that physiotherapy and occupational therapy services were already struggling and now are falling badly behind. For many who need physical rehabilitation this will likely mean irreversible damage or that they cannot be rehabilitated to an independent lifestyle. University Hospital Kerry was already short of 50 administrators before this freeze.

The scheduling of follow-up appointments is becoming increasingly difficult and waiting lists are lengthening across the board. Perhaps most worryingly of all, results from lab tests are not being processed and returned to GPs in a timely manner and there is no administration staff to follow up on tests of concern. Surgery, orthopaedics and rheumatology are also affected, according to people who I spoke to. Winter and the flu season is coming and there also have been some Covid outbreaks. The impact of the flu is already being seen in paediatrics and management positions cannot be filled until the regional health areas, RHAs, are commenced in the new year.

Outside of hospital settings, things do not look much better. The Government's stance is that the disability sector remains unaffected or it is exploiting the fact that some care roles inevitably have a higher turnover, meaning recruitment must continue, to claim that there is no embargo. I spoke to one worker in the sector, who told me that a contract offered was rescinded. Another healthcare worker was verbally offered a role, which was also rescinded. Investments that should have been made years ago and should have been enforced were left on the shelf and it is the sick and most vulnerable who will suffer.

See this speech in context