Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Given the passion and emotion that Trump caused and the shock we all felt in the pit of our stomach yesterday morning, I echo Senator Ó Ríordáin's view. However, a knee-jerk reaction is not positive. I think he is a bit naive, as is the SDLP leader, in saying we will not cross any threshold there. We need to be involved and we need to make sure we can do the best for this country.

I raise the issue of the bizarre HSE memo sent to acute hospitals encouraging nurses to use force to remove patients from beds. It was rightly labelled by the unions and the Minister, Deputy Harris, as utterly offensive and unacceptable. This memo was issued on 11 October and came to nurses' attention earlier this week. It stated that nurses should use minimum force to remove trespassers, that is, patients, who are incapable or unwilling to give up beds.This is incredible and repugnant. Nurses' first professional obligation is to their patients and adherence to the code of professional conduct and ethics of An Bord Altranais. Nurses are gobsmacked by the coldness and callousness of this memorandum. It confirms the loss of compassion and respect for the public that the HSE is supposed to serve. I demand a written formal apology from those responsible. People in senior managerial positions must carry out a root cause analysis and hold those responsible to account. There are numerous reasons for some patients being unable to vacate beds. For example, a young, wheelchair-bound 18 year old man from Crumlin cannot leave the acute bed because it will take a year for the adaptations in the house to be carried out. He must use the back garden as his toilet.

I urge the Acting Leader to follow up on this and demand an apology. We have gone from trolleys to chairs to forcible ousting. Perhaps the next instruction to nurses will be to taser these trespassers, our patients.