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Nursing rep raises spectre of emigration

By Noreen Bowden | September 2, 2008

Hundreds of newly trained nurses will be emigrating due to a lack of jobs in Ireland, warned the Irish Nurses Organisation this week. INO general secretary Liam Doran says that only about 25-30% of newly trained nurses are being offered jobs, after being trained in four-year training programmes funded by the taxpayer. Doran told the Herald newspaper,

“It’s probably the worst scene that has existed for the last decade in the health service. Hundreds will be emigrating”.

He noted in the last 13 months the number of nurses employed in the health service has declined from 39,000 to 37,700.

Meanwhile, Doran said, other countries are working to hire more nurses. “America has said that they’ll employ 600,000 more nurses in the next six years. You could be working in the morning in America.”

The INO is trying to increase the number of posts for nurses employed by the HSE; the HSE had a hiring freeze, which was lifted in January.

The Herald also asserts that “Irish medical doctors are being lured to Australia by more flexible rosters and less onerous hours by recruitment agencies”, but offers no figures.

Read the report on the Herald.ie website: “No jobs in Ireland for our new nurses“.

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