John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of giving members the opportunity this morning to air their views is because the committee deals with public expenditure and reform. Part of the committee remit is to cover the agreements on public pay. Having witnessed the nurses working at first-hand, any of us would agree that they are at the coal-face, that they are understaffed, that the pay situation has not been what it should be and that it has been allowed to drag on for a long number of years. This House has overlooked the real issues in the context of the nurses. There has been no real debate about public pay in this House, but there should be.

Next Tuesday we will have the Minister before us and we can deal directly with him in respect of these matters. I was on the picket line yesterday in two different hospitals. The people there were talking about pay restoration, pay parity and the conditions of their employment. They brought to my attention the health and safety issues on many of the wards in the hospitals I went to and in many others throughout the country. They are safety issues and staffing issues. It is clear from the messages being sent from Irish nurses working abroad that they would prefer to be at home. I was struck by some of the comments from those who came back. They say they have come back from a different health service to one that is way behind the required standards. It gives us the opportunity next Tuesday to highlight these matters.

I will make two final points about the patients on the waiting list and those who have been cancelled. I would ask them to bear with the situation. I know that it is difficult, but at the same time this is about a long-term issue in terms of safety and pay.

When I was on the picket line yesterday at St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny some of the nurses actually went into the hospital to relieve some of their colleagues and deal with some emergency issues that arose. It is not as if they are ignoring their patients – they are not. The strike is about patients and nurses and it should be resolved. The politics of this House is such that it is, in my opinion, ignoring the issues at hand. There should be a debate and discussion about the whole thing and resolution rather than it going any further. I thank the members for their contributions. We can now move to the next item.