Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have stood across the House from the Minister of State more often than I have stood across from any other Minister in my time in the Dáil. While I may have taken issue with figures and things she has said before, I have never had such an issue with something she has said in the Dáil as I have with one of the lines in her contribution today. She said there is a collective responsibility to exhaust all opportunities and avoid further anxiety. She said there has been constructive engagement. She went on to say that the Departments remain available to reconvene with the workers' representatives and trade unions. She said we all know that the solution will only be reached through further dialogue. The Department remains available to reconvene. It has had 21 days' notice of formal strike action and has not responded or reached out to restart formal talks. It had 21 days' notice. The unions have been perfectly clear that they are available to go back to the Workplace Relations Commission at a moment's notice. They would speak from this moment until Tuesday morning, through the weekend, but there has been no formal contact from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth or any Government Department to the unions to restart formal talks. That is inexcusable in response to this dispute.

The real truth as to where the Government lies in this dispute was clear in the Taoiseach's response on Leaders' Questions last week. He said that the 5% offer was the offer on the table and it was a take-it-or-leave-it contribution. There seems to be a bull-headed approach from the Taoiseach, at least, that is leading to industrial action and strike.

That seems to be where we are going and it seems to be driving Government policy and tactics on this issue. Nothing from that Leaders' Questions debate to this moment has dissuaded me that that is the belief. I hosted a briefing yesterday that was very well attended by members of the Opposition. There was only one Member there from a Government party who did not contribute, I will mention Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, but many representatives from the Opposition were there. We heard from Fórsa, SIPTU and the INMO but we also heard from workers in section 39 organisations. They said they would be in tears on the picket line and that they had never felt so much guilt in their lives than they did facing into Tuesday. They said they have been left with no other opportunity. If this goes ahead on Tuesday and those services are not given, we cannot get those services back. This is not like an industrial action in a factory where the action ends and people can catch up and pull extra hours and overtime and all the rest. When those services do not happen on Tuesday, they are gone forever. No-one knows that more than the service users themselves and the workers who look after them. There is, therefore, huge guilt. It is not even like the barristers a couple of weeks ago where they had a day on strike. And what happens in the budget? They are sorted with €9 million at the stroke of a pen. The barristers were sorted after one day of action. This dispute has been going on for years. It has been ramped up, particularly in the last 18 months. The unions and workers have been patient. They have been massively patient and have engaged with the arduous, sometimes tedious, work of trying to negotiate with the Departments. The Minister cannot, therefore, say this is a move or action that has taken the Government or any of the Departments by surprise.

It is disappointing because the Minister of State mentioned in the first page of her speech, and we know this, the number of different areas this dispute around section 39, section 56 and section 10 workers impacts, including health, justice, education, housing services, homeless services, further education and the Department of Social Protection, yet we do not see that level of response from any of the senior Ministers in those Departments at all. It seems the Minister for Health, who writes the biggest cheque for all of this in terms of funding section 39 organisations, has no interest in resolving this dispute. These workers are the backbone of our social care system. They are the ones who keep everything else afloat. It has been an absolute dereliction of duty from the Government that we are going to face this action on Tuesday. We have two full working days, but we have four days between now and then for something to be done. The unions have made it clear that they are available to return to talks straight away all through the weekend, whatever it takes. The ball is firmly in the Government's court, and everyone sees it that way. The service users and their representatives and unions see it that way. We in opposition see it that way. It is unbelievable that in a dispute that impacts the most vulnerable in our society, the Government does not see it this way and that we had a response such as we had from the Taoiseach during Leaders' Questions last week. In the contribution by the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, I hope we will hear something that will lead to formal talks and a resolution to this dispute.

What happened on Tuesday in the budget was 90 minutes of two senior Ministers followed up by various announcements from other Ministers with not one mention of section 39, section 56 or section 10 organisations. These workers are beyond the end of their tether. They feel absolutely forced into this. No-one is going into this dispute cheering it as something good. It is going to be tough, hard and painful, but there is no other choice. The ball is firmly in the Government's court. This is a strike of last resort and it is up to the Minister to stop it.

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