The 120,000 registered practitioner nurses and midwives across the breadth of the island are the backbone of our health service. As they care for us throughout our lives, those of us in public life, particularly those in government, have a duty to care for them but that has not always been the case. Our student nurses have been utterly failed, alongside other students, when it comes to student accommodation. There is a deficit of at least 39,000 student beds across Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. The Government is delivering near naught in terms of purpose-built student accommodation. It is a drop in the ocean. As these nurses progress through their careers, they endure the burden of conditions that no one would wish for our healthcare system. In the past week alone, it was reported that last month was the worst April on record for overcrowding in University Hospital Kerry. A total of 23 people waited 24 hours on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick where doctors warn that patient safety risks identified by HIQA last year remain unaddressed. In my constituency, 16 people were waiting on trolleys in Cavan hospital. Monaghan hospital should be fully operational. Is it any wonder that some 25,000 Irish-qualified nurses and midwives, excluding retirees, have left our health system over the past two decades? We need to do better for our nurses. They are highly trained, qualified and dedicated but we need the Government to put in place conditions that both nurses and patients need and deserve. The same holds true for many of our other healthcare professionals. Given the events of today, it is apparent that there has been a failure by the Government to properly recognise the modern role of ambulance personnel as prehospital care professionals. There have always been severe issues of workforce planning, driving overtime and burnout. In some cases, there have been issues of resourcing. The Government cannot say it was not warned, however. I have raised resourcing issues within our ambulance service in Monaghan with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister of Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and many others to no avail. This Government is just not listening. What is needed? The Minister must intervene directly and genuinely listen to the grievances of our hardworking nurses and ambulance service workers.

Sentiment score: -0.04