Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Contrary to the Minister's earlier assertions that the Government respects the incredible work and dedication of nurses in our public health system, the response from the nursing unions and the nurses at their recent special delegate conference suggests that they do not feel the Government respects them whatsoever and that its latest pay offer is an insult that will do nothing to address their concerns about the miserable levels of pay enjoyed by nurses, who are the worst paid health professionals, by a considerable margin. The Government's failure to offer the full re-establishment of pay equality for nurses and teachers and other public sector workers and to bring nurses' pay up to the level of other similarly qualified health professionals has led them to say they have no choice but to consider industrial action. Does the Minister not think that we need to listen to what the nurses and their representatives are saying about the need to restore their pay and establish pay equality?

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