Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I express the full support of Solidarity and the Socialist Party with the nurses' strike. Our amendment makes it extremely clear that the House should support the pay claims of these staff as the best immediate step we can take to deal with the general crisis in our public hospitals. This is about pay equality and parity for an extremely underpaid group of workers. In our opinion, it is about all those workers who have experienced stagnating wages while housing costs in particular are completely out of control. Wage rises need to match what is happening in other areas. This is also part of a struggle for a decent, properly funded public health service, a single-tier national health service as opposed to the chronically underfunded, two-tier health service that is a drive towards privatisation. Nurses, together with patients, are on the front line in suffering the brunt of the latter, with chronic stress, burnout, sickness and so on.

There is a deep irony in that Fine Gael obviously loves the free market but refuses to recognise reality when labour market conditions here dictate that nurses need a massive pay rise. It is a global labour market and there is a shortage of a million nurses worldwide. This is the reason that nurses' pay is significantly higher in other countries. It is the reason that agency pay is 20% higher here. We have a pay crisis and an understaffing crisis because of the absence of a Government willing to fund the service. This is reflected, for example, in the shocking ratio of births to midwives, which is significantly under the internationally recognised standard.

I echo the point that there is huge public support for the nurses, as I am sure they are aware. We had a stall in Tallaght on Saturday and there was a queue of people to sign a petition in support of the nurses. If a public demonstration were held, for example, I think there would be a huge turnout to support the nurses and the idea of a properly funded public health service, and this would add extra pressure on the Government.

There was widespread dismay and disgust at the comments of Paul Bell of SIPTU, which effectively encouraged SIPTU nurses to pass the pickets. Of course, they should do no such thing. They should refuse to undermine their colleagues' struggle and instead ballot and join the struggle alongside the INMO and the PNA.

Many examples have been given as to where the money is to be found. It is to be found in many places, and we could be here all day explaining how the nurses absolutely could be paid. I will add just one more example. It did not get a lot of coverage before Christmas, but the junior Anglo bondholders, those who were meant to be burned, who were not meant to be paid, but who refused to take any sort of haircut, got paid €270 million. The Government could find the money to pay bondholders who were supposed to be burned but says it cannot find the money to pay the nurses. This tells us everything we need to know about the type of Government we have and whom they represent.

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