Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too offer my condolences to all those people from Syria and Türkiye who lost their lives in horrific circumstances.

I want to highlight some issues raised in our very alarming and disturbing session in the health committee I attended this morning. We heard from representatives of trade unions representing healthcare workers about the shocking degree of violence and risk to which workers are subjected. Healthcare workers already labour under unbelievably difficult conditions to provide the care we all rely on. They are dealing with inadequate pay, dysfunctional administration and overcrowding, and it is unbelievable that they are not receiving the bare minimum to which a worker is entitled, that is, a safe and secure workplace, and also respect.

So many issues were raised that I will not be able to raise them all in the limited time I have. I refer to the persistent crisis in staffing, which means that all healthcare workers are stretched thin. We know that is the case. Sometimes they are isolated without co-workers present who can intervene if a situation gets heated. Security in healthcare settings also seems to be at a minimum, which is very worrying. One witness spoke about a locality where several health centres shared an outsourced security service, meaning that at any given time they had no on-site security presence.This is truly shocking. Workers are being left to fend for themselves at 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. According to data from the Health and Safety Authority, HSE staff made 4,796 reports of workplace physical, verbal or sexual assaults in 2021. These are absolutely staggering figures. The same data show that there were only 446 inspections. This is just not good enough.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, noted in its briefing document sent to committee members, that it is not only a workers' rights issue, it is a women's rights issue, with 63% of the assaults in the health services being perpetuated against nurses and midwives. Those professions are 95% female. Our failure to protect healthcare workers from violence constitutes a failure to adhere to our obligations under the Istanbul Convention, which sets out member states' responsibilities to prevent domestic violence and violence against women. We will have a debate on this topic tomorrow, which is very welcome.

The SIPTU witness spoke about how when trade union officials met with the officials from the HSE or from the Department of Health, they struggled to make progress because the officials sent to such meetings were not senior enough to be able to commit to courses of action. The witness spoke about how they struggled to get responses from the HSE and from the Department when they followed up meetings with questions on proposals. This lack of respect shown to healthcare workers' representatives is absolutely unacceptable. My concern at the moment is that we all rely on essential workers and they are not treated with the respect they deserve. This has to change. I call for a debate on the issues around the safety of our healthcare workers because it is very worrying.