Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad we are discussing the struggles faced in work by our nurses this week as strike action by these essential workers looms but it is disappointing that a party like Fianna Fáil which wants to pretend to be the real Opposition has not taken the time to talk to the workers and their representatives who are at the core of this issue.

As party spokesperson on mental health, I am all too aware of the real cost and damage done by the way we have treated nurses in our health system. Such damage has not only being done to our nurses but to our entire service and those who depend on it. When someone is at breaking point, when their life has spiralled out of control and illness has taken over, it is the members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association who are there, not the Minister, the Government or the chief executive officer of the HSE. It is the well trained, professional and caring face of such nurses. It is for this reason the people are firmly on the side of the nurses and they will win this fight. It is for that reason also the Government should hang its head in shame for making threats when it should have been offering olive branches.

We in Sinn Féin demand the Government engage, recognising the need to address pay issues and commit to a pathway to rectifying unequal pay in the health service and for an independent review as laid out in the proposed amendment. I ask the House to support the amendment to the motion tabled by Sinn Féin and other parties.

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