Speaking ahead of a Sinn Féin Dáil motion tonight on nurses pay:
It is high time that the government stand up for nurses and midwives and address the issues of pay and the recruitment and retention crisis.
The current recruitment and retention crisis in the health service is having a demoralising and damaging impact on patients, nurses, midwives, doctors, healthcare professionals, and wider society. Nowhere is the recruitment and retention crisis more acute than in the area of nursing and midwifery.
If something is not done to increase nursing and midwifery numbers and address the issues which they and their Unions have outlined as being a barrier to entry to the professions and a cause for exit, then the crisis in the health service will only escalate. There is no point in talking up the prospect of increasing bed capacity if there will be no staff to facilitate this. This issue will not go away and Sinn Féin are determined to see a solution.
Unfortunately, in recent years the work and dedication of Irish nurses has been taken for granted with successive Health Ministers’ failing to understand or address their situation or the reasonable requests they have made for better working conditions, better facilities, more supports, increased training opportunities, and for the issue of pay to be addressed.
The motion calls for the introduction of recruitment and retention measures based on realistic proposals and which prioritise pay. It also calls on the government to work with Unions to draw up a roadmap on how full pay equality will be achieved for nurses and midwives with an implementation plan to deliver pay equality within a short timeframe.
I am hoping the motion will receive widespread support. I can see no reason why any party could not agree with its proposals. Nurses and midwives dedicate their life to helping people, now it is time for the State to help them.
