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

The Government acknowledges and is aware of the fact that two of the three unions that represent nurses have voted to strike. They have done so by a large margin - 95% - which indicates the depth of feeling among nurses and midwives about their terms, conditions and pay. The Government understands that, and we will engage with all three unions that represent the nurses and midwives with a view to avoiding strike action, if at all possible. There was a meeting between employers and unions yesterday, and there will be a meeting of the public sector pay deal oversight committee, I believe, on Friday. There will be engagement, therefore, and we will do all we can within reason to avoid strike action simply because of the impact it will have on patients. A midweek strike will have a significant impact on patients. It will be necessary to wind down activity probably from the middle of the day on Tuesday, and circumstances may not return to normal until some time on Thursday. It will result in thousands of operations being cancelled and thousands of patients not getting the appointment with the specialist they may have waited to see for a long time, which we want to avoid. Even if it is cancelled at the last moment, as strikes sometimes are, it will be too late to reschedule everything, which is why we will engage through the normal mechanisms between now and then to try to avoid strike action.

It is important to point out again that we have a pay deal, not only with nurses and midwives, but with all 300,000 public servants. That pay deal runs until 2020 and provides for pay increases between now and then. We want to pay those increases because we want to pay our public servants better as they deserve to be paid better, but we need to do it in such a way that it is affordable and fair, recognising what is happening in the wider economy and recognising the wider political situation, particularly relating to Brexit. I note the comments of the Leader of the Opposition about how Brexit may have an impact on the public finances in the months and years ahead.

The Deputy said it was his analysis that this dispute could lead to knock-on claims across the public service, which may well be correct, but that would leave us with a bill for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of euro in pay increases, which we cannot afford. As is always the case with populists of the left and right, they present easy answers and simple solutions such as a financial transaction tax but that would just drive financial transactions to other financial centres. It would not bring in the money that the Deputy believes it would, and it is disrespectful to nurses and midwives considering going on strike to present easy answers like that which he knows are not true.

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