John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I wish to share time with Deputies Ó Caoláin, McHugh, Connolly and Joe Higgins.

The Minister gave a very well-constructed and clever speech in which she highlighted patient care and fairness. The clear implication was that, by embarking on industrial action, nurses were being unfair to patients and other professions, such as teachers. I will return to that point because I am a former teacher. The Minister's speech has not helped matters. The speech was provocative and divisive. The obstructionist, rejectionist, "come on if you're hard enough" approach will only further antagonise nurses.

The nurses entered negotiations with an open mind and wanted creativity. I will quote from the Taoiseach's letter to Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO. When one reads this letter, one really believes that the Taoiseach, who is renowned for his negotiating skills, wants to resolve this. In the letter, he says:

As you know, I have always maintained that progress could be made without the need for industrial action, which, I know, would be resorted to with great reluctance by the nursing profession. The care of patients has always been such a paramount value for the nursing profession as to win them the respect and admiration of the wider public.

He goes on to say:

For my part, I will ensure, with my colleague, Mary Harney T.D., the Minister for Health and Children, that the Government representatives in this intensive process will be as open and creative as possible in achieving outcomes to the benefit of nurses and patients alike.

We know that those negotiations were embarked upon and that the INO-PNA entered into them in good faith. In respect of the problem, we are talking about a two-humped camel. We can narrow it down to two issues, namely, pay and the working week. I genuinely believe that if we could, for example, deal with the working week, the other issue would fall into place fairly rapidly. It can be resolved.

Statements have been made about the national implementation body. The problem with the statement by the national implementation body is that when it attempts to address the 35-hour week, there are so many caveats and conditions surrounding it that it is unacceptable to the INO. What the INO wants is a very clear commitment, namely, a starting date. However, there is no starting date and if there is no starting date, it will not happen in its view. This is the difficulty.

I urge the Minister to go back and look at this in a very different way. The problem is that, as the Minister is aware, this will escalate and will have to be resolved at some stage. I do not want this to escalate. I believe, like the nurses, that patient care must be uppermost in everyone's mind. I do not want to see a situation emerge where nurses are being blamed for neglect of patients because one point the Minister rightly made was that nurses enjoy a high reputation with members of the public.

I take issue with the Minister on one particular point. She says that other professions do a fantastic job. That may be so, but I speak as a former teacher when I say that while teachers do a great job, it is not the same sort of job as that done by nurses. In addition, teachers are recompensed with very good holidays. Nurses do not get the same sort of holidays and are under constant stress in an overstretched hospital system. I do not know how anybody could stay sane in our current hospital system and try to deal with a situation where one finds trolley after trolley on which patients lie in great pain.

The Minister is, in some way, responsible for this situation because she has let the hospital system deteriorate to such a degree that nurses now find themselves under pressure. I ask the Minister to try to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

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