Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle. What a cowardly and craven performance by the Taoiseach in Washington last night, by the way.

I wish to address what has happened in our health services on the Tánaiste's watch. Ten minutes from now, trade unionists will assemble at the gates of the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore and at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda to protest against the recruitment cap imposed on the HSE and their hospitals by the Tánaiste's Government. Yesterday, workers protested at St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, where they were joined by my colleague, Councillor Ruth Coppinger.

Last Thursday, I joined with workers protesting at the gates of Cork University Hospital, CUH. I spoke to workers from the medical records department. They have just ten full-time staff where they should have had 24. I spoke to workers from the housekeeping team. Earlier this year, hospital management tried to stop members of this team from taking their annual leave but had to back down after an outcry. Nevertheless, the pay and numbers strategy still means that some members of this team have to clean three wards in a day. That is backbreaking. Outsourcing has to be stopped and these workers should get their grade 3. I spoke to nurses who pointed out that there are more than 2,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies being suppressed across the HSE. God knows how many posts are being suppressed across all grades. Perhaps the Tánaiste could tell us. I spoke to porters who told me that, in 20 years, they had not seen the workforce so burnt out and stressed out.

On Tuesday, there were an incredible 98 patients on trolleys or chairs at CUH, the highest number since the INMO started collecting trolley numbers 18 years ago. If there are 98 patients on trolleys in CUH at the start of October, how many await us in the depths of winter? One of the hospitals that could take some of the pressure off CUH is Mallow General Hospital but Mallow hospital now has 34.5 full-time vacancies. Staff shortages in its lab services recently forced the cancellation of some surgical procedures. The gap has been plugged for now, with staff members from CUH who live in or near Mallow coming to the rescue. Once again, the picture we see is of a health service really struggling to get by and a workforce that is severely overstretched.

Mallow was just one of the towns that were threatened recently with a cut to their ambulance cover. I congratulate the ambulance staff, the people of Mallow and people across the Cork and Kerry region for pushing back against that cut. The threatened cut to ambulance cover was withdrawn under pressure but the original cutback by the HSE to National Ambulance Service funding remains in place. People are suspicious, rightly so in my opinion, that the cut in ambulance cover will remain withdrawn until after the general election but will be reintroduced then. I urge the people of Mallow to elect politicians who will fight ambulance cuts all the way, not politicians who would have them postponed rather than cancelled.

The Government's pay and numbers strategy is a disaster. It is a recruitment ban by another name. Will the Government lift it before the winter comes or will it just allow this dire situation to go from bad to worse?