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

It absolutely is.

I was talking to radiation therapists who will be in here later today. They say that despite capital investment in, for example, linear accelerators and scanners in Cork, Galway and St. Luke's, the machines are sitting idle because they do not have enough staff, and that if people leave, there is no guarantee at all that they will be replaced and there is no effort to recruit the people who are necessary. In respect of my own hospital, I was informed, and I have to hand figures from the HSE that show, that it has 21 fewer staff than are required. After we had a protest and a meeting, I got a letter saying it was going to try to recruit the 21 staff. That was a month ago, and two jobs have been advertised for St. Michael's Hospital.

The same picture appears everywhere else. Lourdes hospital in Kilkenny has only 75% of its posts filled. Twenty-seven jobs are needed and one has been advertised for. The Government is not trying to recruit the people. That is what is actually happening. It has suppressed jobs and created an artificial ceiling or quota for staff, based on whoever happened to be in post in December 2023 - completely arbitrary - if those posts were not filled. According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, 2,000 nursing posts have been suppressed.

It is very simple for me. Do I believe the Government or the INMO nurses who are balloting for industrial action? Do I believe the health workers who are protesting outside University Hospital Kerry at the moment? Do I believe hospital consultants who are saying the waiting lists are getting longer and will be longer this year than they were last year?

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