Report from End the recruitment freeze demo

There was a lively protest last Wednesday outside the Department of health about the ongoing cutbacks in public healthcare that the government are driving through to faciliate privatisation.

Health science students and members of Labour Youth took part in the demonstration which received coverage in the O Reilly press.

The recruitment ban has led to:
A crisis in Accident and Emergency
Public health patients waiting in pain on hospital waiting lists while others can buy healthcare that everyone is entitled to
A skills drain from Ireland with trained healthcare graduates forced to emigrate to find employment

At the same time the government is giving lucrative tax breaks to wealthy corporations to build private hospitals on public grounds. They are deliberately causing a crisis in public health care to pave the way for privatisation.

The ban which was due to be lifted last December has remained in place in a number of areas, where the government is attempting to institutionalise cutbacks that were announced as temporary measures to stay in budget. Its a classic example of cutbacks by stealth, facilitating privatisation by stealth.

Stop the recruitment freeze