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

In July, the HSE announced that there was a lifting of a recruitment embargo for the health services. That announcement was a deception. How do I know? It is because over the past number of weeks, I have had multiple calls from people at different grades and in departments in St. Michael's Hospital saying that a staff quota has been imposed. This means maternity and sick leave is not being covered, people who retire are not being replaced, department after department is understaffed and people are demoralised.

All of this is being done under a measure called the pay and numbers strategy. It turns out that this is not specific to St. Michael's Hospital. When the Taoiseach and I were in the National Rehabilitation Hospital, the clinical director confirmed to me that even her post took a while to get past the pay and numbers strategy. This is affecting the hospital and it is being applied everywhere. An arbitrary ceiling on staff is preventing recruitment, rehiring and safe staffing. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, confirmed this today. That ceiling needs to be lifted immediately.

See this speech in context