Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will answer Deputy Rabbitte as he asked me the question. I informed the nurses of the position when I met them. They did not ask me to tailor future pay increases based on house prices around Ireland, for example giving greater increases where house prices are higher, so we should stop trying to raise such nonsense.

The position is that the Minister for Health and Children wrote to the INO and PNA on 22 December, setting out the Government's viewpoint, suggesting an exploratory meeting between officials from the two unions in the context of the Labour Court's recommendations. That meeting was held on 19 January and the management side confirmed the acceptance of those recommendations and its willingness to hold discussions on the claim for reduced working hours, as recommended by the court.

The Labour Court pointed out in its recommendation that, over and above the matter of pay which was properly covered in Towards 2016 and must be dealt with through benchmarking, engagement on a broad basis should be conducted to enable issues such as the length of the working week to be addressed on a sustainable basis. I want to emphasise that the Government is fully prepared to engage in those discussions.

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