Bitter Dáil row over Mayo hospital staff shortages

"I am sorry but the minister needs to get with the programme"

A Mayo Oireachtas member has become embroiled in a row with Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill over frontline staff shortages at Mayo University Hospital.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh clashed with the minister during a debate on the Health (Amendment) Bill 2025, which is intended to enhance the oversight and accountability of the HSE.

The Erris-based representative said there have been too many incidents of governance failures at the agency, referencing the CervicalCheck scandal, which revealed 162 women were not informed about missed abnormalities in their smear tests.

She also cited the 2023 nursing home review, which revealed serious governance lapses after a resident was raped by a staff member in the HSE nursing home.

Deputy Conway-Walsh continued: "We will all remember the treatment of the whistleblowers who faced suspension and disciplinary action for raising concerns of financial misconduct and care home abuses.

"However, I have concerns that this legislation will do little to implement meaningful change in respect of its stated aim of exercising the highest standards of prudent and effective financial and budgetary management.

"If the government really wanted to enhance budgetary governance, it would introduce the multi-annual funding framework it promised in the programme for government.

"I am asking the minister to please address persistent staffing issues across the HSE.

"The government claims the recruitment embargo in the HSE has been lifted since last July but there have been no positive effects in Mayo.

"I met representatives of the INMO again last week. In fact, I have very direct experience of being in the emergency department in Mayo University Hospital in the last number of weeks.

"I commend the staff there for the job they are doing but they are expected to do that job even though there are not enough of them."

In response, Minister Carroll MacNeill said there has been a 32% increase in staff at Mayo University Hospital.

Deputy Conway-Walsh: "The INMO is telling untruths, then. It is telling untruths, as it says there are not safe staffing levels.

"The minister can hold up whatever document she likes, but I am telling her that there are not enough staff in the emergency department of Mayo University Hospital to provide safe service there.

"I am also telling the minister that it is a deterrent for so many people who want to, and probably need to, go to hospital.

"They want to do everything to stay out of hospital. Those nurses and other staff members are absolutely run off their feet.

"They are expected to operate on a corridor with trolleys each side of it, patients in pain moaning, looking for help and trying to get a bed when they cannot get a bed, yet the minister is telling me the hospital has enough staff. It does not have enough staff. I can tell the minister that.

"I am very grateful for the service the staff provide but there is not enough of them there. Whatever the Minister is doing, I ask her to please address that and to look at it.

"I am sorry but the minister needs to get with the programme."

* A total of 17 admitted patients are awaiting beds at Mayo University Hospital today, according to the INMO trolly watch.