Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

At the end of the Minister's reply he said he was most concerned at today's unannounced industrial action. The Minister is a member of one of the health care professions. Does he believe health care workers would refuse to work if they were not confident doing so? Those workers took a decision this morning not to continue work because they believed that the staffing levels were not high enough given what they were working with at the time. They were short four staff. They were threatened by the HSE with suspension. That should be withdrawn and there should be an apology to those workers for taking that action. This is not industrial action. This is a question of workers pointing out a health and safety issue and saying that they cannot work in those circumstances. The Minister for Health should stand over the decision the workers had to make this morning. They are seriously concerned about their patients. That is why they took action this morning. I hope the LRC can resolve this as quickly as possible. However, the Minister for Health is ultimately responsible, and he has to stand over what happened this morning in University Hospital Galway.

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