Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Can the Taoiseach confirm that the Croke Park deal will maintain the current recruitment embargo in the health services? Can he confirm that to date some 1,900 non-replacements of front line service providers, nurses and midwives in the main, have resulted from that embargo? If it is to be maintained in the health services, over the next three years in excess of 6,000 further posts will remain unfilled and not replaced, with a corresponding cut of the order of some 3,500 further acute hospital beds in the public hospital network. If those are the facts - I understand them to be so - is it any wonder that the INMO has overwhelmingly rejected the Croke Park deal?

Having said that, I recognise that there are divided opinions among some trade union representatives of workers within the health services and that SIPTU has taken a conflicting position regarding the workers in the health services that it represents. At the end of the day how will it be possible to reconcile a situation, whatever the outcome, where there is such strong opposition within the sector representing the nursing staff and midwives and also the SIPTU representation within the health services? How is it possible to reconcile these respective positions, whatever the outcome, especially if acceptance is to be the case? How will the Government expect that to roll out after the final judgment on the Croke Park proposals?

See this speech in context