Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. I thank the Labour Party group for tabling this really important and timely motion which I wholeheartedly support. I sit on the Joint Committee on Health and the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health with Senator Hoey and was present during the recent shocking health committee meeting where trade union officials representing healthcare workers detailed the horrific level of violence to which the workers are subjected. I am sure the Minister is aware of it himself. It had a profound impact on us all. I spoke in the Chamber the day after the meeting and requested a debate on this topic. I am grateful, thanks to Senator Hoey and the group, that we can now have this debate.

Healthcare workers already contend with difficult conditions to provide the care we all rely on. They deal with inadequate pay, understaffing and overcrowding, and all of this takes a huge toll on the well-being of these workers. We have a responsibility to ensure that healthcare workers, who commit their careers to caring for us, are properly cared for themselves. It is really truly unconscionable that they are not receiving the bare minimum that a worker is entitled to expect which is a safe and secure workplace. The continued crisis in staffing means that all healthcare workers are stretched thinly. We know that. They are often isolated without coworkers present who can help if a situation escalates into violence. Security in healthcare settings always seems to be at a minimum. During that recent meeting of the health committee, 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. It is truly hard to comprehend. Workers are being left to fend for themselves. It is not fair and I do not think it is good enough.

According the data from the Health and Safety Authority, HSE staff members made 4,796 reports of workplace physical, verbal or sexual assaults in 2021. These are absolutely staggering figures. The same data show that there are only 446 inspections and this is clearly insufficient. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation noted in its briefing document, which was sent to the health committee members, that this is not only a workers' rights issue, but actually a women's rights issue. Some 63% of assaults in the health services are perpetrated against nurses and midwives. These professions are 95% female. The failure to protect healthcare workers from violence constitutes a failure to adhere to our obligations under the Istanbul Convention, which sets out member state responsibility to prevent domestic violence and violence against women.

I am glad the motion highlights the absurd situation where healthcare workers who are the victims of violence are afforded different levels of leave under the HSE's serious physical assault scheme depending on whether they are classed as an officer or not. Based on this totally arbitrary distinction, medical and clerical staff get six months while support staff, such as healthcare assistants, only get three months. If a doctor and a healthcare assistant get assaulted in the same incident, they are afforded different levels of support based on their job titles, rather than the nature and severity of their injuries. It is a glaring injustice which reflects the same lack of respect shown to these support workers as the delayed payment of the Covid-19 service payment to contract cleaners and security guards. These workers are treated as an afterthought even though they play an essential role in the smooth and orderly operation of a hospital.

I am sure we are all familiar with the recruitment and retention crisis in our healthcare system. I know it is a constant dialogue. Sometimes it feels as if it is the only thing we talk about in the health committee because it is at the root of so many of the issues we face. The issue of violence against healthcare workers is a vivid example of the vicious cycle of understaffing. Workers are more vulnerable to violence because of understaffing, minimal security and overcrowding. The failure to protect these vulnerable workers then becomes a powerful push factor which results in people leaving because the feel undervalued and unsafe. We need to break the cycle if we are ever going to resolve the perpetual dysfunction in our healthcare system.

Ensuring medical settings have adequate security is the bare minimum. There should be security guards on-site at all times ready to intervene. If recruitment is an issue, addressing low pay for security guards and taking them off the list of ineligible occupations for an employment permit, are potential pathways forward. The employers of healthcare workers owe them a duty of care to provide them with a safe and secure working environment. In addition to that, we as a society owe healthcare workers immense respect and gratitude. It is our collective responsibility to provide these workers with the protection and support they need at this time. I really hope this House adopts this sensible, and what I would call, humane motion. We clapped for healthcare workers during the pandemic and now it is time to stand up for them. I thank Senator Hoey and the Labour Party again for bringing forward this motion.