Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It should not be happening and we need to examine that another day. The one phrase in the Minister of State’s reply I take umbrage with is: “Any indication that Galway mental health service is an unsafe service is unfounded, . . .”. After a weekend like last weekend when an acute psychiatric unit was short four nurses and the nurses feel patient safety and their own safety is in question is an indication that a service is unsafe.

There are lots of promises in the reply about staff being recruited, and I appreciate there are difficulties in taking on staff. Is the Minister of State confident that next weekend and the weekend after, the situation in Galway will not be the same and the acute psychiatric unit will be four nurses short? Does she have absolute confidence that the management of Saolta University Health Care Group will have the proper complement of nurses available in the acute psychiatric unit to ensure that nurses and patients will have no health and safety problems?