Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this important motion forward this morning. The motion is timely, particularly in a Mayo context, as I attended a protest on this very issue outside Mayo University Hospital, MUH, just last Thursday. I know the Acting Chair is very familiar with it. More than 100 protesters - members of trade unions like Fórsa, SIPTU and the INMO - were there on the day. I commend them on giving up their time to highlight the precarious position this Government has left them in regarding the delivery of healthcare in Mayo.

I want to know how the Minister and the Government expect MUH to deliver safe and appropriate healthcare when 82 positions are vacant, if safer staffing levels are adhered to. The INMO representative spoke about vanishing vacant staff positions that were not filled by the end of 2023. Some 2,000 hospital positions across the State disappeared. In MUH, a total of 82 staff positions evaporated as a result of the New Year's Eve cull. How is that possible? What is certain is that the level of need has not reduced; in fact, it is the opposite. The missing staff in Mayo include two advanced nurse practitioners, 47 staff nurses, 17 midwives and a range of nursing specialists and management positions. Currently, there is no spend on agency healthcare attendance or nursing staff. While I do not believe in spending on agency staff, when we are in an absolutely dire situation, as MUH is, it is needed in the interim.

Those are just the vacancies in hospitals. Across the healthcare sector in Mayo, there are huge shortages of staff, including in mental health services and services for older people. Everyone in Mayo knows the outworking of these missing staff, which is cancelled appointments, ambulances queued outside emergency departments, no hope of getting a child seen by CAMHS in a timely manner and no physiotherapy or occupational therapy for older people. Once again, the Government turns its face away from the most vulnerable.

The bad news for patients and staff is that it will get worse as winter deepens and additional demand is placed on them. I feel very sorry for staff who are forced to work in these conditions. The stress they are under must be unbearable. If the safe staffing levels are to be introduced, they are short 25 additional nurses.

See this speech in context