Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the Public Service Pay Commission. The Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, are meeting today to discuss the findings of Public Service Pay Commission and figure out how we can correct the problem of more than 2,000 vacancies throughout the nursing profession. The Public Service Pay Commission has stated that there is no issue with nursing recruitment, but that is inaccurate and misleading. The dogs in the street know it is an issue. The staff and the patients know it is an issue. To take psychiatry alone, mental health is spoken about a great deal. The latest audit of nursing vacancies indicates that the number of unfilled nursing posts in mental growth is growing, and there are 700 posts vacant in that speciality alone. That is nearly 200 vacancies since last year when the last audit was done. There are 88 vacancies in St. Ita's Hospital and 76 vacancies in St. James's Hospital. In Dublin north city, there are 56 vacancies, 62 in Galway, 46 in Louth-Meath and so on.

The Public Service Pay Commission has ignored the scale of the mounting recruitment and retention crisis facing our entire health services. Retirements projected over the next five years will put further pressure on an already broken system. The conclusion of the pay commission that there is no issue with nurse recruitment is completely at odds with the evidence and experience of nurses and patients across the services. The reality is that there are ongoing vacancies, in some places as high as 25%, which are impacting daily on the delivery of health services. In particular, the staff shortages in child and adolescent mental health services are well documented, as is the excessive and expensive reliance on overtime and agency nurses throughout our services. Nurses argue that these staff shortages are unsustainable and can be best addressed by a pay rise across the grade. Will the Leader ask for a debate with the Minister about the Public Service Pay Commission and the reason it rejected across the board pay rises in services that are much needed for the health of our nation? It has ignored the mounting recruitment and retention issue.