Early career nurses and midwives are being “driven away from the profession or forced to leave Ireland” as a result of the disparity between their salaries and housing costs, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation‘s (INMO) annual conference has heard.
The union said newly-qualified nurses working in cities like Cork and Dublin are spending up to 77 per cent of their monthly wages on rent.
The INMO on Wednesday opened its 106th annual conference in Co Wexford, with several delegates highlighting the impact housing is having on the viability of nursing as a career.
The conference passed a motion calling for a housing assistance payment to be established for all nurses and midwives in response to spiralling costs.
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Christopher Hughes, a student nurse based in Dublin, said the salaries paid to newly graduated nurses “do not reflect escalating cost of living, particularly housing”.
“Rental prices in big cities such as Dublin, Cork and Galway often surpass €2,000 per month for a single bedroom apartment,” he said.
“These costs amount to approximately 77 per cent of a newly qualified nurse’s wage, which start at approximately €32,000 with an early career nurse earning around €36,000.”
Mr Hughes said many newly qualified nurses were struggling to secure affordable accommodation and often “live in overcrowded housing” or “far from their work”.
He said the disparity between early stage salaries and housing costs “creates a significant barrier, a vicious cycle where talented nurses and midwives are driven away from the profession or forced to leave Ireland altogether”.
INMO vice-president Ester Fitzgerald said that during snow earlier in the year, she brought a colleague home only to discover she was living in a house she had rented back in 1998.
“The soft furnishings, the couch, the kitchen table, the curtains were exactly the same,” she said.
“I think if my memory serves, we were paying about 500 pounds at the time and she is now paying €1,900 for the exact same house.”
Ms Fitzgerald, who works in Cork University Hospital, said if the Government wants to retain young graduates there is a need to increase housing supports and availability.
“We’re asking people to come across the world to rent houses that are totally inappropriate for anyone’s needs and [they’re] paying massive rents,” she said.
Research conducted by the INMO found that in a recent search on Daft.ie for Dublin 8, 10 and 12, there were only 12 properties available to rent. The union said this was a concern with the new national children’s hospital due to open next year on the St James’s Hospital campus in Dublin 8.
James Leonard, of the INMO’s eastern youth forum, said “too often we hear of nurses and midwives having to get two or three buses to and from work”.
He said nurses and midwives were buying houses “two counties away” because of rising prices.
“Nurses are moving from Dublin to smaller hospitals; hospitals are losing their staff because people cannot afford to live near where they work,” he said.
Another delegate, Nicola Hurley, said her parents are psychiatric nurses and were able to afford a home on their salaries in the 1970s and 1980s.
“It’s a dream now to be able to afford a mortgage on a nurse’s salary,” she said.
Meanwhile, INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said members have reported an increased prevalence of assaults and workplace stresses.
“We’re now seeing assaults and verbal abuse increasing in areas such as maternity services, paediatric services,” she said. “It’s an unwelcome change.”
She suggested it was a result of the general public “waiting longer for services” which causes “a huge amount of frustration”.
“Unfortunately, the person that you meet on any given day on the frontline is more than likely going to be a nurse.”
The INMO conference continues on Thursday, with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill due to address delegates.
