Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I care deeply and profoundly about patients. I am a medical doctor by training, I worked in the public health service - and never in the private health service - for seven years, I have been a Minister for Health, and I am the leader of the Government. I care deeply, therefore, about how strike action may impact on our patients. I care about patients and how they might be affected, and I care about taxpayers, whether they work or not, because people who do not work also pay taxes. Any solution, agreement or pay deal must be paid for by taxpayers one way or the other, and any strike will have an impact on patients.

I fully accept there are far too many patients on hospital trolleys. We will continue to do all we can to reduce the number. There is one area, however, where we have made undeniable progress, namely, in reducing waiting times for people who need a hospital operation or a procedure. The numbers waiting more than 12 weeks, which is the target set in the Sláintecare plan, is now at a five-year low, but strike action will impact on that. Operations will be cancelled and the enormous progress we have made in reducing waiting times for hospital operations and procedures may be reversed. I do not want that to happen, which is why we will engage with the unions to try to avoid strike action, if at all possible.

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