Member's statement: International Nurses' Day
Member's statement by Mr Danny Donnelly on .
- MLA
- Mr Danny Donnelly
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 13 May 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- International Nurses' Day
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4488542
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I acknowledge International Nurses' Day, which was celebrated yesterday, 12 May. It is a great opportunity to highlight the invaluable work of our nursing workforce across Northern Ireland. During my nursing career, I saw every day the hard work and dedication shown by our nursing staff, and Health and Social Care (HSC) could not begin to function without them. Last year, 26,063 nurses were registered in Northern Ireland, performing a wide variety of roles in hospitals, care homes, health centres, prisons, schools and people's homes. They worked on the front line throughout the COVID pandemic and continue to work under extreme pressure in our health service. There are currently around 1,725 nursing vacancies in HSC, and there is a similar estimated vacancy rate in the independent and nursing home sectors, with nurses reporting high levels of stress and burnout. We have recently seen nurses have to resort to strike action to get equal pay with their colleagues across the UK. That is not an acceptable or fair way in which to treat that proud and compassionate profession. We must address the serious issues that are impacting on the profession or else the situation could deteriorate further, meaning that patient care will suffer. We need to make sure that our nurses are respected and valued. Two key issues must be addressed by the Department during the remainder of the mandate. The first is the issue of fair pay for nurses. We have again seen pay levels fall behind the rest of the UK as a consequence of political failure in this place, owing to lengthy periods without a Minister and an Executive in place. The current pay offer is an improvement but does not fully achieve pay parity. The second important issue is safe staffing. Nursing is a safety-critical profession, but, too often, nurses have been forced to deal with unacceptable workloads, which can cause stress and have an impact on their mental health. It is not acceptable that patients' needs cannot be met effectively. It is for that reason that we need new legislation on safe staffing, which the Minister has indicated he intends to bring to the Assembly before the end of the mandate. I encourage him to make it a priority, and, as a member of the Health Committee, I look forward to working with him to ensure that we deliver a fair deal for our nurses.
399 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.63 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.15 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.13 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.06 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.03 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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