I thank nurses across the country. Without them, we would not have a health service, but the reality is that student nurses are being worked full time caring for patients while struggling to afford rent, transport and food. Much of this work is unpaid. Travel accommodation and fuel costs are pushing students into debt, hardship and even homelessness just to qualify. By the time they graduate, many are already burned out. That is not sustainable. If we want nurses to stay, we must support them properly during training, not after. We also have serious issues with nurses on work permits. In Bantry General Hospital, a nurse is still waiting on her Irish residence permit card and cannot travel home to see her family. This is simply not good enough. I also raise the case of Ms Elma Joseph, an Indian national with a valid critical skills employment permit to work as a nurse. She has been told she must leave the State due to a change of employer despite being lawfully here and working in a sector crying out for staff. That completely undermines the purpose of the critical skills scheme. I call on the Government to sort out these issues immediately. Our health system cannot afford to lose these nurses, especially on a day when all paramedics are taking strike action. The Minister will have to sit up and listen to this. I listened to the Taoiseach's answers about those paramedics who are on strike today. They have been wronged, not for a week and not for two weeks, but for years. The Government seems to be using every kind of mechanism against the ordinary working paramedic who has given their time to save lives and upskill. A report was brought in in 2020. All of this was there before this Government and the last Government, and the paramedics have been left there and forgotten. This cannot continue. The Government has been neglectful and caught sleeping at the wheel. People are striking. That is no place for good, genuine, hard-working people who want to go out, save lives and do what they are trained to do and should be paid properly to do.

Sentiment score: -0.05