Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

We have grown accustomed under this Government to crisis in the health service but the withdrawal of the services of the country's most senior doctors is unprecedented and will pose a grave threat to the health of our people.

In the past week, 89% of the consultant members of the Irish Medical Organisation voted for strike action. On Sunday, at an extraordinary general meeting, the 1,600 members of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association were balloted for strike action and there is no reason to believe the result of that ballot will be anything other than an overwhelming vote for strike action.

The dispute is long-running and has been exacerbated by the actions and words of all parties involved. It is already affecting the health service in that for the past year consultants have refused to co-operate with the health reform process of which they are a vital part. Other than a few organisational name changes in the past month, the health system remains stalled. The chronic problems of the health service remain unaddressed and the crisis in accident and emergency units around the county continues to reach even more dramatic proportions on a daily basis.

Does the Taoiseach agree that while the three parties involved in this dispute, the Government, the consultants and the Medical Defence Union, will be affected to varying degrees by the consultants' strike action, the major losers in any such process will be the patients for whom the Government and the consultants have a duty of care?

Does the Taoiseach accept that if this strike takes place and consultants withdraw their services, it will result in the cancellation of all outpatients clinics in both public and private hospitals, there will be no elective surgery admissions and the acute hospital system will effectively grind to a halt for all but the most urgent and critical patients? Will the Taoiseach update the House on the response the Government is giving this impending crisis and the action he is taking to prevent it?

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