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

The Government is deceiving the public about the reference to addressing the crises in our health service. It claimed there was no recruitment embargo. Last week, health workers from all health unions were protesting about the pay and numbers strategy, an effective embargo which means we have unsafe staffing levels in our hospitals. In my own area, we had a meeting with many workers and other people from St. Michael’s Hospital, Loughlinstown hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital, all citing chronic understaffing and the inability of those hospitals to recruit people for vital posts in community and hospital care because of the pay and numbers embargo being imposed by the Government. Is the Government going to scrap this effective recruitment embargo? Will it bring in the patient safety licensing Bill to ensure proper safe staffing levels in our health system, something this Government promised it would introduce in 2018 but has refused to do?

See this speech in context