James Heffernan (Labour)

Following on from what many Senators have contributed this morning to the health debate, I was alarmed when I read the article in this morning's newspaper and the language the Minister had used to describe the nurses' action. He stated it was "unsafe, unsound and unwarranted." To me, such language, especially in the situation in which we find ourselves, is completely unhelpful. I know many of the nurses in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and they are literally at their wits' end. They raised the issue time and again with management, the HSE and the Department, but, like many of us here, it fell on deaf ears. They are not being listened to. They have not become involved in this dispute to improve their pay and working conditions. This is a matter of patient safety and putting the patient first. It is interesting that when they decided to take this action, management had no trouble in opening up an extra few beds to remove bodies from the corridors and into wards. It is engaged in a little cosmetic surgery on the problem.

I agree with other speakers that we definitely need to have the Minister, Deputy James Reilly, come into the House to deal with the grave concerns many of us have about the health service, but I would go one step further. While coming here is all fine and well, I ask the Leader to recommend to the Minister that he visit the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick to speak to the nurses and management to come up with a solution instead of using throwaway remarks and dismissing the nurses' action out of hand.