Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I wish to ask the Deputy Leader to consider the very serious issue of assaults on psychiatric nurses. In 1993 three nurses were stabbed in Artane and one of them has not worked since. They were not paid compensation and, after a long and arduous process, the HSE eventually decided to create a scheme for nurses that would provide a degree of compensation for injuries and assaults causing injury. However, the proposals breached the commitment given to the union by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, which set out that any nurses' scheme should be consistent with the guidelines of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. The PIAB asserts that a broken nose is worth €15,000 to €20,000 in compensation but under the nurses' scheme it is worth €3,000. Similarly, a limb fracture was valued at €15,000 to €83,000 by the PIAB but is valued at only €3,000 under the nurses' scheme. This is a sad reflection of how psychiatric nurses are treated by the Minister and the Department of Health and Children. An urgent review is necessary.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association started industrial action today in the form of a ban on overtime. Psychiatric services are in desperate need of a serious evaluation of service standards and the types of challenges that face psychiatric nurses every day. We are all too aware of the issues that affect people with mental health disorders in our society and I will not belittle them. There is an urgent need for this scheme to be put in place for nurses, particularly psychiatric nurses. The Labour Court recommendation, which was agreed, must have a meaningful value for nurses and compensate them accordingly when injured on duty.