I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes: — the trojan work and sacrifice of healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic; — that there have been 28,912 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in healthcare workers, with nearly 400 infections in the last month in nurses and midwives alone; — that healthcare workers, particularly frontline patient-facing staff, have been overworked since before the pandemic, and have reached a point of exhaustion beyond burnout; — that there is significant evidence of waning vaccine protection after…

That is because the Deputy did not listen to a word we said.

I will respond later.

The Deputy has not spoken to it yet.

First, I thank all of the speakers who have made contributions, It is a very important motion. I will respond to some of the contributions, starting with Teachta Duncan Smith of the Labour Party who spent half of his contribution attacking Sinn Féin on the false assumption that we were against the remaining public health restrictions. In fact, we are against giving emergency powers to a Minister where he makes regulations that have never come back into this Dáil for any proper scrutiny or debate. We are seeking pro…

My question is on hospital waiting lists. I am asking for the total number of people who are on waiting lists, including those not captured by the NTPF, which would include diagnostics. When I make my supplementary contribution I want to concentrate on children on waiting lists, which is of huge concern to me.

I have been in many hospitals in recent weeks. I have been in hospitals in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Laois, Sligo and many other places. I have met hospital management, campaigning groups and those on the front line and the figures are shocking. The length of time people are waiting is also a difficulty. I want to home in on the matter of children with scoliosis because a promise was made not so long ago by the Minister's predecessor and by his predecessor that there would be a maximum four-month waiting time for tre…

I met parents of children with scoliosis on Zoom today and many of them said to me that their children have been left with lifelong complications because of the delays to their care. They also said they have seen this before and heard all the promises but that they have not seen the improvements. They said that we should aspire to do better for our children and to have a health service that does not have their children in those circumstances. I accept the Minister's point that it is unacceptable but the Minister's …

We are seeing presentations in emergency departments at record levels for this time of year. It is concerning for hospital managers and the staff on the front line, who are burned out and exhausted and are now facing into what they believe could be a dreadful November, December and January. What will the Minister do about the crisis in emergency departments and its relationship with the lack of GP services, particularly out-of-hours GP services, and the NAS? I have met the NAS several times in recent weeks. It has …

We have to examine why we are seeing this high level of presentations. The Minister is right, in that many of those attending are doing so with more acute needs, which is presenting more challenges for hospitals. Another reason is the lack of out-of-hours GP services. The NAS has told me that there is an absence of a treat and refer policy that is underpinned by clinical governance and that there needs to be movement in this regard. Many people are calling ambulances because they cannot get access to GPs, meaning t…

That does not tally with what I am being told by hospital managers. Across the State, all of them, with the exception of the Limerick hospital manager because that hospital got a new modular unit, are saying that many of the beds the Minister talks about are beds that were temporarily open anyway. They did not get capital funding to build new units and they are being asked to cram beds into very tight wards, which is not what we need to be doing when we are in the middle of a pandemic as it is not good in terms of …

He has to finish naming all of the Government Deputies first-----

I was in Navan today with my two colleagues. I met a number of different groups as I wanted to see and hear for myself at first hand what was happening in Navan. In the spirit of the offer the Minister made to work with Oireachtas Members from both the Government and Opposition in the constituency, as the main Opposition health spokesperson I want to work with him on this as well. If it is about saving lives and quality of care, then we can all work together to make sure we get the best outcome for the people of Na…

What about the renters? Focus on them.

I want to ask the Tánaiste about student nurses and midwives who are among the heroes we all commended over the last 19 to 20 months. I understand that an independent report has not only been commissioned but is sitting on the Minister for Health's desk and that report is looking at a permanent solution for fourth-year nurses. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation demanded that their pay be restored to 80% of an entry-level staff nurse position and that for first-year, second-year and third-year nurses there w…

Those working in our healthcare system have had an horrendous 19 months in 2020 and 2021. I commend the heroics of those working on the front line in healthcare and those who supported them in ensuring we navigated our way through a very difficult time. The sad reality is it took a global pandemic for the Government to realise we needed major investment in health and major reforms in how we do healthcare in the State. Budget 2022 is a big let-down for healthcare workers and patients. Today 900,000 people are on som…

I will start, if I may, by offering my condolences to the family of Tom Burke, his wife and his children. He was an ever-present character, in the best possible sense, around Leinster House and he will be missed not only by his family but also by people in Leinster House. This morning, there were 451 people on trolleys in hospital corridors and squeezed into free space. Limerick, Galway and Cork are still the worst hit hospitals, as they have been for years, with no change. Waiting lists are spiralling out of contr…

Of course the Tánaiste is right to accept that there is enormous distress caused by high wait times. He talked about the risks involved for patients and, yes, there are risks for staff as well, as we know. As a former Minister for Health, he knows that healthcare is, in essence, about people treating people, as well as making sure the people who work in our health services are valued but also that they have the resources. When the Tánaiste talks about what the Government did last year, he needs to be a bit more str…

Will the Tánaiste comment in his response on the issue of the restrictions on maternity services?

I will try my best. It had been reported that this afternoon the Cabinet will make a decision on the revised text of the OECD agreement. We have been clear that it is in the best interests of the State to be part of any final agreement to reform the international tax system. I want to ask a specific question regarding comments the Tánaiste made a number of weeks ago. He said that the 12.5% rate would remain for the average Irish business. He later rowed back on this commitment and clarified that this was a false as…