Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a major issue of public concern that is not getting a hearing in the Oireachtas, namely, the proposed increase in the registration and retention fee for nurses that is to come into effect. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland is proposing a 50% increase, which is outrageous. Some 2,000 nurses protested in Blackrock yesterday. I now urge them to protest outside Leinster House. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business calling on the Minister for Health to come to the House to discuss and justify this. He should state what he will do with the health services when the nurses do not pay their fees in January.

I agree with the unions involved that the nurses should not pay the fee. Nobody has been asked to pay a fee that is 50% higher during the whole period of austerity. It is completely wrong. There are many two-nurse households that will have to pay €300 in January. It is austerity gone too far for the nurses. They are among the few PAYE workers — teachers have now been included in the set-up in that they have to pay the Teaching Council — who must pay a fee to work. It is not fair that a bloated bureaucracy in Blackrock, which disgracefully aired in public allegations of drunkenness against a nurse that turned out to be untrue, is now looking for a 50% increase in the registration fee. I propose that the Minister for Health come to the House to explain and justify this or tell us it will not go ahead.