When I think of nurses, male or female, I think of the stereotypical attributes that we associate with them: kindness, gentleness, warmth, a reassuring smile or word, but also their dedication and professionalism, as well as world-class qualifications, ability and professional capacity. It is appropriate that every year on this day, International Nurses Day, Parliament recognises and thanks those nurses for the extraordinary care that they provide to our communities every day. Those nurses include advance medical practitioners, and I am conscious of the National Ambulance Service and its strike action. I hope that the Government can assist in resolving this via the HSE as soon as possible. I am fortunate enough to have the national ambulance training centre in Tallaght in my constituency as part of a broader expanding health campus adjacent to Tallaght University Hospital. The national ambulance training centre is an interesting place to visit. I recommend it to anybody who is involved or interested in health. Its staff are always delighted to facilitate Deputies to see exactly how it works in terms of how calls are taken, distributed and responded to. International Nurses Day, as we know, is marked on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the figure we associate with modern nursing and who understood something that remains as true now as it did then. She is attributed with the words "A cure is not always possible, but care is always possible". I do not think that anyone understands that truth more deeply or lives it more fully than the nurses in our hospitals, both private and public. Nurses understand that care is not secondary to cure. It is not an optional extra or a premium people pay for on their health insurance. It is an essential foundation of any humane health system, and it is our nurses who bring that foundation to life every day. They stand with patients and families during the longest nights and the hardest conversations, offering support when medicine alone is not enough. They are present not only in moments of recovery but also at moments of fear, uncertainty and loss. They are the beating heart of our health system. It is not enough for this House to simply recognise that their work is important but to ensure that those who deliver care in healthcare settings outside of hospitals in our cities, towns and villages are properly supported in their work. We heard from the president of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation last week that nursing is a safety critical profession. Patient safety depends on having a sufficient number of skilled and experienced nurses and midwives and that they be respected and retained within our health system. That is a truth that all of us in this House agree with regardless of party affiliation. Despite criticism, it is also an area where the Government has made solid progress. Since the beginning of 2020, there are nearly 11,000 additional nurses and midwives working in our health services, bringing the total number to 93,000. This achievement represents a 3% increase on the previous year, and it also represents the highest number of registrants to date. Progress has also been recognised internationally. Recent data from the OECD shows that Ireland is now among the leading countries in Europe for nurses per capita. These statistics represent real progress, but they do not give us licence, as previous speakers have said, for complacency. Staffing levels on paper do not always reflect the pressures that are felt on the ground, and many nurses continue to report workloads that are difficult to maintain. For example, I read an interview with the chairman of the board of University Hospital Limerick at the weekend about the frustrations and overwhelming pressures on the nursing staff at the hospital. Unfortunately, it is a story that keeps repeating itself. The safety and health, including the mental health and physical safety, of our nurses is critical. In a previous contribution, Deputy McGuinness mentioned the impact of long Covid on nursing staff. I have constituents, as many of the people in this House would have, who are nurses who suffer from long Covid and have seen their entitlements come to an end. They have had to add that stress to the stress of having a tedious, unrecognised illness and all the symptoms associated with that. I urge those in charge of the systems that offer protection and pay to people in this situation to look on this with an empathetic eye and remember the days and nights when we applauded our nurses who stood between us and a pandemic. They were very much at the front line of that pandemic. I read recently in the newspaper that in Northern Ireland - I hope I have this correct - nurses' unions are considering that nurses wear body cameras, such is the level of assaults and intimidation of healthcare staff. While we read about attacks in emergency rooms here, for now, the decision has been taken not to take that step because it would violate patient privacy. The point is that no one in the health service - I have spoken to doctors, consultants and nurses in this regard - seems to be escaping the break down in the boundaries and barriers of respect and protocols that existed. This affects health professionals and everyone else who works in the health system, such as orderlies, ushers, caretakers and catering staff. All those kinds of boundaries appear to have broken down. On top of going into work and being overwhelmed by the demand on the wards, intimidation and physical violence is also part and parcel in some parts of our hospital system. It is true that, last year alone, some 7,000 healthcare professionals left Ireland to work in Australia, at a time when we produce approximately 900 doctors and 1,600 nurses each year. That gap should and does give all of us pause for thought. It underlines that the training of more professionals, while essential, will never be sufficient on its own if we do not also create the conditions that encourage skilled staff to build their careers in Ireland and ensure that the people most affected by the change in conditions or the lack of accommodation are given a strong voice within the partnership system, or what used to be called the social partnership system in this country. Their voices must be heard and represented at the table for negotiations when discussions on their future take place. We need to support nurses. We need to care for those who care for us. Personally, without going into any detail, I have been at the receiving end of that care on a number of times in my life, as have members of my family, both here and abroad. International Nurses Day should not only be a moment of celebration; it should also encourage us to recommit to listen, respond and keep raising the ambition of what we can do for the nurses in our health service and health system.

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