Ms Aideen Carberry:

I will add to my colleague's comments. As part of our consultation with members on the impact of the pay and numbers strategy, SIPTU also conducted a survey among our members. What was very telling was that 86% of respondents said there was a somewhat or very negative impact, not only on staff but also on services.

As part of that engagement, we allowed people to come back to us with their comments on that. What was very telling was that people mainly seem to be concerned with services. They spoke about issues such as being late delivering meals to patients, an increase in waiting lists for patients and higher risks of infection due to certain areas not being covered from a household or cleaning perspective. Earlier, we asked the committee consider the fact that the delivery of healthcare is a multidisciplinary endeavour and that the workers SIPTU represents are as important as others in delivering vital services to the community.