John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak about the proposed increase in registration fees for nurses and midwives. This is an 80% increase over two years from €88 two years ago to a proposed €150 this year. If the costs rose as a result of legislative changes there might be a case to be made, although I think the case would be a very poor one. There is a growing and deepening suspicion that a figure of €4.7 million will appear on the accounts of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland which has not published accounts in two years. These accounts are to be published in the next few days and they might show a figure of €4.7 million costs due to impaired loan repayments. A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland seems to have confirmed yesterday that this is the case and therefore, we will be in real trouble.

That is because we are of the view that we can solve our problems within our profession, which is probably as it should be. In the past week or so, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, called on nurses to go the extra mile or make an additional effort to ensure that the crisis in our accident and emergency departments is resolved. I would contend that they have gone an extra two miles in this regard. In fact, nurses go the extra mile every day in order to ensure that accident and emergency services, and the health service in general, operate properly. The response from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland has been to prevent the same nurses the Minister has called upon to make the additional effort from working because they will not pay the registration fee. I do not believe nurses should pay that fee, particularly if it is connected to the increased costs relating to paying off impaired loans.

The Minister needs to become involved in dealing with this matter. He made a statement in recent days but he needs to take a more proactive approach and discover what is the exact position. If the board has incurred debts of €4.7 million in respect of property speculation, this would indicate that the malaise within the board is even worse than previously thought. Will the Leader ask the Minister to take the type of approach to which I refer in the interests of resolving this dispute?