I am pleased to join the Minister for Health today in marking International Nurses Day and in recognising the extraordinary contribution nurses make to our health service and society. I was also pleased as Chief Whip to fulfil the request by Deputy Devine, who wanted these statements held. I was pleased to be able to put this onto the agenda because it is important that we acknowledge the fabulous work nurses do. As the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, I would like to make special mention of the role of mental health nurses in the health service. Mental health nurses look after some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. They support individuals at moments of acute distress, at points of recovery and throughout longterm engagement with services. Their work, like that of all nurses and midwives, is grounded in clinical expertise, therapeutic relationships and sustained commitment to personcentred care. They are often the consistent presence for people navigating complex mental health needs, building trust over time and supporting continuity of care across services. Nursing roles today are carried out in a context of significant and evolving demand. Mental health needs in our society are increasingly complex, services are multidisciplinary and care pathways extend well beyond traditional clinical settings. Mental health nurses are essential to navigating and responding to these challenges. I have seen first hand how nurses adapt practice, support innovation and help to shape how modern mental health services are delivered. I am also aware of how lucky we are in Ireland to train mental health nurses at undergraduate level. Across the EU, most countries do not train mental health nurses as a separate undergraduate field. Every mental health nurse who graduated last year in Ireland was offered a position here. It is important to acknowledge that. The role of the mental health nurse has evolved significantly in recent years. We are seeing clinical leadership and a growing level of specialisation across the workforce, reflecting both the complexity of need within services and the expertise required to meet it. Mental health nurses work across a broad range of advanced and specialist roles, contributing not only to direct care but also to assessment, care co-ordination, prescribing, governance and service development. I want to give a special shout-out to mental health nurses who work across the psychiatry of later life. They do an amazing job supporting older people at a time in their lives when all they want to do is stay at home to live their best lives in their own communities. They actually go to the house to support people who might have an enduring mental health condition or who might be struggling with anxiety or distress. I have seen it first hand and I cannot pay enough tribute to them for the work they do and their kindness and understanding of the client who they are seeing. We see this also in the delivery of services such as the national clinical programme for suicide ideation and self-harm where experienced and skilled nurses work in our emergency departments to respond in real time and provide support to people in severe distress. While we are continuing to expand crisis alternatives in the community, we know people in distress will always present to hospital for emergency care. In responding to this reality, I believe the solution is to establish specialist nursing teams in our emergency departments, staffed by advanced nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists working out of hours to support the non-consultant hospital doctor on duty and the consultant on call. I have funded these new teams for all model 4 hospitals in budget 2026, and I will do the same for model 3 hospitals in the next two budgets. This is further recognition of the role nursing can play in expanding the scope of how we provide mental health services and utilise the extensive skills and experience of our nursing workforce. Similarly, the suicide crisis assessment nurse, SCAN, service is another example of how our nurses go above and beyond for their patients' well-being. SCAN is a key component of national suicide prevention and crisis response efforts. It provides a timely response to requests from GPs for the assessment of people experiencing suicidal crisis, with assessments often taking place in primary care or community settings. The SCAN service provides a short-term, specialist, community-based clinical response for individuals presenting with suicidal ideation or self-harm that does not require acute hospital admission. As of 2025, there are 33 funded SCAN clinical nurse specialist posts for adults operating across 15 counties, alongside three under-18 SCAN services. Funding provided in budget 2026 supports expansion to a total of 45 posts nationally through the allocation of six new SCAN teams for Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Kildare, Dublin south city and an under-18 team for Linn Dara in West Dublin-Kildare. An under-18 SCAN service commenced in Donegal in July 2025. As the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, said, this Government is fully committed to facilitating nurses to continue to work to the top of their licence. Supporting advanced and specialist pathways not only strengthen services but also supports retention, professional autonomy and leadership within the workforce. These developments are essential to building a sustainable mental health system that can meet current and future demand. It is important to acknowledge the realities of nursing in the mental health sector and, indeed, nurses and midwives across all sectors. Many work in settings that are highly demanding, emotionally complex and, at times, high risk. We are aware that these pressures can contribute to reduced job satisfaction, stress, burnout and challenges with staff retention. My colleague referred to the recent INMO survey highlighting high levels of burnout, stress and exposure to growing levels of violence and aggression at work. The WHO Mental Health of Nurses and Doctors, MeND, survey in 2025 found similar results across the European region. These issues are not unique to Ireland or, indeed, nursing. This is a reality globally for the health and social care workforce. However, nurses as the largest workforce can be disproportionately affected as reference by the Minister, Deputy MacNeill. The increased awareness of these issues has, however, identified evidence-based policy actions to assist in addressing them. I am pleased that in Ireland, the Government is supporting many of these actions. The Minister has set out the recent and ongoing policy responses, and it does not surprise me that nursing in Ireland is a global leader in some. This Government will continue to invest in our nursing workforce. Our commitment to this is reflected in our approach to workforce planning. All recent graduates, as I said, of psychiatric nursing programmes have been offered posts within our health service. This is a clear statement of the value placed on mental health nursing and the recognition of its importance to the delivery of mental health care nationwide. International Nurses Day is an important opportunity to recognise the unwavering professionalism, compassion and expertise that nurses bring to every aspect of our health service. This is very evident in the area of mental health, where the training enables skill, empathy, and resilience that makes a profound difference to the lives of individuals and families every day. I want to restate my deepest appreciation for our nursing workforce and to reaffirm my commitment to strengthening the profession through an ongoing focus on safe staffing, professional support, leadership and working conditions. When we support and empower our nurses, particularly those working on the front line of mental health care, we strengthen our entire health system and improve outcomes for patients and service users across the country. Mental health nurses also play a critical role in supporting effective integration across physical, psychological and social services. This is essential to ensure continuity, improve outcomes and support holistic recovery for patients. This is important across CAMHS teams where you have multidisciplinary teams and the clinical nurse specialist embedded in the team, providing a huge amount of effective supports and reaching out to all the various definitions to make sure the young person receives the care that they need. Together, mental health nurses working in partnership with colleagues across all fields of nursing strengthen integrated care, ensuring that every patient receives holistic, compassionate and seamless support throughout their health journey. I welcome the contributions of my fellow Deputies, and I hope they will join me in, once again, expressing our sincere gratitude for the dedication, courage and humanity that nurses demonstrate day in, day out. As former Minister of State for older people, I want to touch on the phenomenal work that public health nurses do in communities every day of the week. Whether it is supporting a mother with a new baby, supporting people at their end of life or supporting people to live their very best life, they play a phenomenal role in the community. We have been challenged in some areas of Dublin, for example, in recruiting public health nurses into areas but I fervently believe, as somebody rooted in my own community, the importance of public health nurses, especially for older people when they are receiving the supports of home care, day care and meals on wheels, is to know that the public health nurse is there at a time when, for example, coming home from hospital, an older person might need a hospital bed or some kind of physical supports as well as the clinical supports that we provide to support older people to age well in their own community. We are very lucky in Ireland to have the calibre of nurses we have. Whether it is public health nurses, nurses who are supporting you at end of life, nurses who are supporting you when you go into hospital or the nurse in your GP service, they are the backbone of health all over the country and I proud to salute them here today.

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