Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is great to listen to the two architects of the failure of the health service. I wish to speak about the 90% of the 35,000 nurses in the INMO who have voted to take industrial action to begin on 7 March. Perhaps those represented by SIPTU might follow suit. I am surprised that this issue has not been raised on the Order of Business already as it is an overwhelming rejection of the Government's proposals which do not seem to deal with the issue of the retention and recruitment of staff by providing a safe environment for nurses and patients. The Minister for Health refuses to guarantee recruitment and contracts for this year's graduates in nursing and midwifery. A conservative estimate of the number of vacancies is 1,500. Under Governments led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, in the past decade the number of nursing posts has decreased by 5,000. Wards and operating theatres are closed and there are limited numbers of community care places in the day hospitals, which we need, and home care packages. There is 80% public support for industrial action. While the health service is not at breaking point, it is broken. This is about the lack of staffing and safety. It is also about the ability of nurses to deliver on their duty of care. This and previous Governments under Fianna Fáil failed miserably when they prioritised the bankers and speculators and handed over billions of euro to the European Union and others abroad. The Government is also refusing to take the billions of euro in the Apple case, as dictated by the European Union. In what country are we living? Whom do we support? Whom do we protect? Whom do we prioritise? We do not prioritise our own. We prioritise being patted on the head by others in the European Union and abroad and being seen as good children and not upstarts by the masters to whom we express platitudes. There is zero tolerance, on my part anyhow-----