Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would not call them crazy at all. They are a critical part of the public service and do invaluable work. I salute Google workers and acknowledge today that the CEO of Google has come out and said that they need to do more in that space. That is a very welcome development.

On public service and nurses' pay, we concluded a public service pay agreement, to which the public service unions signed up. Within the provisions of that, a review was undertaken of recruitment and retention issues in nursing. It made a number of specific recommendations that were considered by the Government recently, and all of those recommendations within that relating to nurses' pay and new entrants were accepted.

I appreciate that the INMO is in the throes of balloting members but the predictability that comes from a negotiated public service pay agreement across the public service has considerable merit. It is not open to the Government, as a party to the agreement, to unilaterally breach its terms and conditions without it having considerable consequences for all the public finances and public services the State tries to provide. Nurses are a critical element in delivering those public services in the area of health care. The initiative we have taken to deal with public service pay, and nurses pay within that, is based on looking at the issues agreed in the context of that agreement around retention and recruitment. The report, which the Government has accepted, is the basis for agreement for the years ahead.

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