Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Next Wednesday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, will commence industrial action, and the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, is to follow in February. The Government sits on its hands. Last April, Sinn Féin introduced a motion to the Dáil that was agreed unanimously but the Government has refused to implement its recommendations. It called on the Government to work with unions to draw up a roadmap for full pay equality, with an implementation plan to deliver pay equality within a short timeframe, not the eight years the Government had in mind. Despite this, at the eleventh hour letters are being sent informing patients of cancelled surgeries. It is clear that the Government has failed comprehensively to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis. It refuses to accept pay is an issue and that this needs to be resolved. I ask the Taoiseach to ask the Minister for Health to appear before the Dáil to explain to its Members, who voted last April and set out a series of reasonable, thoughtful steps that the Government might take, why he has ignored the motion agreed by the Dáil and allowed this situation to escalate to the point of industrial action, which we are facing.

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