Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

There is a chronic shortage of public health nurses in Tallaght and across the South Dublin County Council area. Babies are going without routine developmental checks, which are vital to spotting issues early and referral to appropriate services. Home-based catheterisation is another essential service that has been removed, forcing very ill patients to travel to clinics to access it. The HSE has said it is trying to recruit more public health nurses but there are not enough applicants to fill the vacancies. Once again, the housing crisis is at the root of the problem. Thousands of nurses emigrate every year because they cannot afford to rent and cannot access social or affordable housing. This is on top of the low pay and poor working conditions for nurses, also caused by understaffing and driving qualified nurses to leave the country. What action is the Taoiseach going to take to ensure we deal with the vacancies in public health nursing?

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