Nurses caught in housing crisis: ‘Within six months many think about leaving the country again’

There are about 12,000 nurses from India working in the Irish healthcare system at the moment, by far the biggest cohort after those trained in Ireland.

Many more are being recruited annually as employers here seek to address work shortages, but some of those at the INMO conference in Killarney say that the housing crisis is making it harder for people arriving in Ireland to get the foothold they need, and a growing number of recent arrivals are joining young Irish nurses on the plane to Australia.

In Cork, there are about 700 nurses in a WhatsApp group run for Indian nurses. Three of them, all based at University Hospital Cork, spoke to The Irish Times about their experiences.

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“When I came in 2004 it was fine because the employer was providing accommodation for us and we never had any issue. Now, I know lots of the nurses we recruit are under a lot of pressure to find somewhere.

“The agency will find them for six or 12 weeks but then they have to find somewhere to go. As a manager I find it really affects their performance because they’re trying to look for a place during the break time. They get up in the early morning to look on Daft trying to find somewhere, they’re on the phone.

“There’s a lot of pressure on them. It’s gone like this, definitely since last year, and it’s getting worse and worse.”

Janet Baby Joseph

“I came on my own in 2016 but there was a guy coming to the same (accommodation) agency, I just met him in the airport and we were given a one-bedroom place for both of us. One single bed. It was really difficult but he was good enough about it and went to stay with a friend while I looked for another place.

“The agency helped me and it wasn’t too difficult, not like now.

“Now, there are so many resources being put into recruiting Indian nurses to come to Ireland. Some of the nurses from the Gulf countries have their families and everything here. They have enough money to afford a house but there is no house.

“We have a representative organisation, the Cork Indian Association, where we get together and 99 per cent of the nurses raise the same issue: accommodation. Within six months many think about leaving the country again. I have many friends who have left for Australia very recently.”

Jibin Soman

“I came in 2017 and it was not bad to find an accommodation for sharing at the time. I was sharing with three of my friends. Then a year later I was thinking about bringing my wife over to Ireland. I was searching for houses for one month, two months, three months… I couldn’t find any house and my friend, he was good, he said he would accommodate me and my wife.

“People who are thinking of coming to Ireland ask about accommodation and I used to tell them, try really hard for three months you will get somewhere. Now, I say I don’t know if they will find a house. I don’t know what to tell them.”