Nurses And Doctors Leaving The Country Because There's "No Provision For Housing"

Raise the Roof is holding series of regional and national public meetings on the housing crisis, including in Maynooth.

One of the major reasons that nurses and doctors are leaving the country is because there is nowhere to house them, according to Naas Resident and the Raise The Roof campaign.

General Secretary INMO Phil Ni Sheaghdha insists that housing provisions need to be made in order to retain healthcare staff.

Raise the Roof is an umbrella group comprised of trade unions, housing and homelessness charities. women's groups, Traveller groups, children's advocacy groups, students unions, opposition political parties, housing academics and others.

The group has come together to highlight the impact of the housing crisis and call for a radical change in policy direction.

A number of public meetings will take place around the country, allowing people to have their say on how to improve housing in Ireland.

Raise the Roof will hold meetings around the country, beginning with one in Navan in Co Meath on the 1st June.

This will be followed by meetings in Waterford, Limerick, Galway and Maynooth in June and July.

The meeting in Maynooth will take place on the 4th of July at the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth, at approx.7-7.30pm

Another meeting will also be held in Dublin city on 21 June in the Mansion House.

The meetings are intended to "build broad public support for solutions to the crisis and alternative policies on housing."

Naas resident, Phil Ni Sheaghdha is general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association and current Vice President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, she's a member of the group.

She says her industry is one of many that's affected by the lack of housing.

She warned that the current housing crisis would impact the healthcare services' ability to recruit staff, citing the new Children's Hospital being built on a shared campus with St James' Hospital by way of an example.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said "at a minimum... 500 additional healthcare workers will be needed to open that hospital to its full capacity."

She added that here was "no provision for housing" to allow staff to live close to the hospitals or indeed to commute because "parking just doesn't exist in and around the hospital."

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said that the failure to provide a housing strategy for staff where significant investment is being made in healthcare services was being replicated around the country.

Macdara Doyle, Campaigns Officer, Congress – Irish Congress of Trade Unions spoke with Ciara Noble on Tuesday's Kildare Focus: