Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I note the launch today of the HSE's campaign to lure nurses back in an appeal to their sentimental sides at Christmas. The plan is to hold three open recruitment days with walk-in interviews at the HSE's Dublin headquarters where up to 1,000 full and part-time positions are on offer. The message from the Minister is going to be, "We need you back". This is going to take place over the Christmas break. As a registered nurse who served on the front line all my working life, I would like nothing more than to see the young graduates we nurtured and mentored return to work in our country. This, however, is a desperate attempt by the HSE to pull on the heartstrings of our brightest and best at a time of high emotion to get them to come back and save a health system that is on its knees and which the HSE has run into the ground. The measure is an admission of the grave mistakes the Government and Fianna Fáil have made since 2008 in regard to the health service and its staff.

We sold our nurses and other front line workers down the river to pay back billions to the speculators. Yesterday, 536 of our citizens lay on trolleys in corridors and in wards across the country. This situation is a damning indictment of the failed policy in scattering our young nurses all over the world. We now have the audacity to crawl back to them, pleading with them to come home. On top of this, the INMO is releasing the results of a ballot which is expected to favour industrial action.

I will end on a positive note. I extend the very best Christmas wishes to all my nursing colleagues, including the ones at home and those who are on their way home. They do fantastic and admirable work in trying circumstances. I am particularly conscious of those nurses who will be away from their families working on Christmas Day. All I can say is, "Go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh go leir".