Sinn Féin proposals would bring health professionals home and end crisis driving them abroad says Kenny

Sinn Féin TD for Sligo and Leitrim Martin Kenny has called for all TDs to back the party's motion in the Dáil this week to stop nurses and midwives being forced to emigrate due to the cost of living and housing crises.

Teachta Kenny said: “Government has failed to tackle the housing and cost of living crisis.  This is driving nurses and healthcare professionals from across the northwest to emigrate and stopping others from coming home.

“Today, Tuesday, Sinn Féin will bring forward a motion in the Dáil with real proposals to tackle the cost of living and housing crises which are forcing many healthcare professionals abroad. 

“Many of these professionals returned home during Covid to do what they could. They now feel compelled to leave again because they simply cannot afford to live in Ireland.  

"Doctors, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals do incredible work every day caring for patients and looking after our communities right across Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Roscommon. Despite this invaluable work, they feel failed by this government.

“Too many of these healthcare professionals are being forced to emigrate abroad as their wages can’t match the spiralling cost of living and the catastrophic housing crisis. They want to be able to work in Ireland, to care for their local communities and to be near their families and friends in Sligo and Leitrim.

“This is causing a huge drain of talent for the health service and is adding to staff shortages across Ireland. This in turn is worsening an already appalling trolley crisis and record waiting lists that is affecting people in the northwest every day, with patients forced to wait hours without a bed in A&E or years languishing on waiting lists to access time-sensitive care.

“These failures reflect the government’s total inability to deliver on fundamental issues which communities need. The housing crisis has been causing hardship and misery for ordinary people for years and has continued to spiral on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s watch. We have seen entire generations locked out of home ownership, forced to live in cramped accommodation, or trapped paying sky high rents they can’t afford.

“The housing crisis is undermining the health system’s ability to recruit and retain staff, which is making the existing crisis in health even worse.  It is clear that the government is unable to solve these issues, bringing the housing system and health service to their knees.

“Our motion contains a package of measures to end the crises in health and housing. It calls on government to urgently review its housing plan, and increases its targets for social and affordable housing to rent or buy. It also calls for one month’s rent to be put back into renters’ pockets, and for a ban on rent increases in the next three years.

“Our motion calls for a job’s guarantee for healthcare graduates, and also urges the government to identify, examine and consider all potential mechanisms to address cost of living barriers to recruitment and retention of key workers.  It also mandates the government to immediately engage with General Practice to ensure GPs are supported to take pressure off hospitals and emergency departments, especially by expanding out of hours care, and engage with other primary care professions such as pharmacies.

“Sinn Féin’s proposals would ensure that the health service receives much-needed support to take pressure off staff and ensure that they can do their jobs safely and deliver high quality, timely care to patients across Sligo, Leitrim, and the wider northwest.

“Sinn Féin in Government would train and retain more key frontline staff and fix the housing crisis to help healthcare workers come home.

“I am urging all TDs across Sligo and Leitrim to back our motion in the Dáil this week. The government’s shambolic approach to health and housing must end.”