It is obviously good that we are at least getting this opportunity to talk about the issues affecting nurses but it is pretty rich given the issues highlighted by the INMO at its conference, including stress, burn-out, unsafe staffing levels and student nurses. I do not know how many years ago it was that we had motions about student nurses and the number of them who were contemplating leaving the country because they felt it was not doable for them because of the way they were being treated and what they were facing in the Irish health service. Many of them were leaving the country and going to Australia or wherever. All of those issues that the INMO have been campaigning about all of these years remain with us. Really, nothing has changed. A quarter of nurses are needing to see their GP because of the impact the job is having on them. Last year, this all became very tangible for me rather than being somewhat abstract. I was in the hands of the nurses who were looking after me when I was in a difficult spot. It is then that you realise just how important they are and how much they do for you. We then find that nurses are treated in this way. The Government is now talking about recruitment embargos again. I cannot believe it. When we have unsafe staffing levels and the union has been campaigning to place a legal obligation on the State to ensure safe staffing levels, we are back to recruitment embargos. The Government has given no real clarity as to whether these will impact on nurses and the front line and therefore on patients, the quality of services and all of the rest of it. The Government has consistently underbudgeted for health. That is why we get overruns. The pay, conditions and the situation in our health service are so bad that the service cannot recruit people and has to rely on outsourcing. Working in the public health service is just too unattractive to nurses. The last thing we need is recruitment embargos. We need a recognition from the Government that it has been underfunding and under-budgeting for our health service. Quite frankly, it is scary that the Government is talking about recruitment embargos as a response to its failure to acknowledge the amount of money it needs to put into our health service and into backing our nurses and other healthcare workers. "Hear, hear" for the nurses but the Government needs to step up to the mark.

Sentiment score: -0.01