Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The difficulties in recruiting and retaining healthcare staff, including nurses, are very real. They are not unique to Ireland: the same problems exist in places where pay is much lower, such as Northern Ireland, and much higher, namely, the Middle East and Australia. It is the consequence of an international labour market in which there is a shortage of healthcare staff. Deputy Pearse Doherty should not give anyone the false impression that what is happening means we are not making progress. The number of nurses employed in the public health service in the past five years increased by 2,330. If one compares the position year on year – it is important to compare month with month for seasonal reasons – the number of nurses working in the health service in November 2018 was 860 more than in November 2017. That is an increase of 860 in a year and it does not include student nurses. Those are the facts. People could be given the impression that there are more nurses leaving the profession and leaving the country than there are nurses going into the profession and coming into the country but that is not the case. There are 3,000 more nurses working in the public health service than was the case five years ago, and recruitment will continue.

I am aware that two of the three nursing unions have voted for strike action. The ballots were very decisive, with 95% voting for strike action. That reflects the depth of feeling among nurses and midwives regarding their pay and conditions. The Government does not believe for a second that nurses are anything other than sincere in the action they are proposing to take. We will do our best to try to avoid a strike. An engagement involving employers and unions is taking place today. A meeting of the oversight committee for the public sector pay deal, at which the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Health will be represented, will take place on Friday next. There are other avenues, including the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent this strike from happening but we need to bear in mind that there is already a pay deal in place. That deal, which was agreed not just with nurses and midwives but with all public servants, runs until 2020. It would not be fair or affordable to offer a special deal to one group in the public service and then say to every other group that we have no money left for them. That would not be right. That is the reason we have collective agreements with ICTU and I am of the view that it is the right way to manage public sector pay.

We should not forget what is involved in the agreement to which I refer. This year alone, there are five different ways in which public servants' pay can increase: there will be an across the board pay increase in the autumn; a special pay increase for those earning under €30,000 has just kicked in this month; there has been a reduction in the pension levy; a special increase for new entrants in March, should that be agreed;, and an incremental pay increase for most public servants over the course of the year.

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