Seanad debates

Tuesday, 27 March 2007

2:30 pm

Photo of Brendan RyanBrendan Ryan (Labour)

It was about the fact that those nurses were genuinely concerned that the hospital could not be run safely with the proposed numbers. Like every other parent in Cork, I have seen the quality of the city's maternity services, including midwifery and nursing care. The suggestion that those people are being greedy is a gross insult to them. It is even more offensive to the people of Cork, including mothers-to-be, to suggest that a €75 million hospital might be handed over to the private sector to be used for some other reason simply because the nurses refuse to work in conditions which they believe to be unsafe. It is time the Minister and the Health Service Executive climbed off this high horse and sorted the matter out. It is management's function to reassure staff in any employment that they are working in a safe environment. It is not the function of management to call people names just because a prestigious hospital opening was postponed. It is time the hospital opened under conditions acceptable to those who worked there.

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