Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to organise a debate on the crisis in nursing. Graduate nurses in County Kerry were brought into a meeting and told by their bosses, who are only doing their job, that if they did not sign contracts by 24 February, they would be fired. The Minister for Health is blackmailing nurses by threatening to get rid of them if they do not accept a cut in pay. Nurses and graduate nurses do not have a choice in this matter as they want to stay at home rather than move to Australia, England or America. They have also been told that if they are not replaced, nurses on the ward will have to adapt. Patients will suffer as a result. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the nursing crisis and the reasons the Minister for Health is blackmailing graduate nurses.