Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach just told Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan that Ireland was a country of business and enterprise and that incomes were at an all-time high. Will he please tell that to nurses, 37,000 of whom were threatened by the Minister for Finance last weekend that if they went on strike, they would lose their increments? Not only would they lose their increments, they would lose a lower pension levy and the paltry pay rise proposed in the Public Services Pay and Pension Act 2017. When we had a financial emergency, the Government introduced the FEMPI legislation. After that, the Public Services Pay and Pensions Act was brought in. These Bills set out to penalise workers who were striving to improve their incomes but who were held back by the financial emergency. Where is the financial emergency now and why are workers being trapped in the conditions that resulted from it? In particular, I ask about the 37,000 nurses on whom we will all rely so heavily throughout the coming winter, as stated by the Taoiseach recently in his comments on the winter initiative.

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