Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate why she said it was a script she had been handed. I will repeat what she said a few moments ago. She said the INMO claims there are nursing shortages. Any Minister should accept there are nursing shortages and, further on in the statement, the Minister of State effectively did so. The INMO has been trying to make progress through the HSE. It has asked for a Workplace Relations Commission meeting. The HSE has been offered four dates and has refused all of them. The INMO is now taking industrial action because of the extent of the crisis. Quoting figures on the number of additional nurses is not addressing the issue. The issue is that safe staffing arrangements are not in place in our hospital network. The issue is that 2,000 nursing vacancies were wiped off the system by the Minister. It was not a recruitment pause, it was a moratorium. Patients' lives are at risk. The INMO is taking industrial action not for self-gain but to defend our hospital system. Frankly, the response handed to the Minister for State is entirely inadequate and unacceptable.