Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I think the Taoiseach is out of kilter with the rest of the country but that is not unusual. There is massive support for the nurses and if they have to go on picket duty the length and breadth of the country tomorrow, they will be joined by other groups of workers, by members of their community and by hundreds of people who will be beeping horns and showing them support because they want them to win, not because they want the sort of headlines that we see in the newspapers today, that the average staff nurse is earning €53,000 that will rise to €55,000 by next year, which are lies, damned lies and statistics used against the nurses at this 11th hour to try to condemn them on the picket lines. I hope none of this is coming from the Taoiseach's spin machine. We have all read the INMO submission regarding this dispute which shows that the starting salary of a staff nurse is €29,000 a year and only goes up to €45,000 after 15 years. That goes to the nub of why we are here having this argument.

I want to say, on behalf of Solidarity-People before Profit, that we fully support the nurses if they go out on strike.

I hope that they will not be put down by spin machines and propaganda that tries to make them out as being totally selfish. The Taoiseach and his Government are standing up, all macho, and shaping up to the nurses. They have a hard neck to think they can blame them for taking action when Brexit is happening. How dare he mention Brexit in the same sentence as their strike. These people do not want to go on strike, have not done so for 20 years and have only done so once in their 100 year history. I will read from the submissions given to The Irish Timesby many nurses. One starts: "I love being a nurse." The statement continues:

I don’t love living at home because I can’t afford to save and pay rent. I don’t love that my brother makes more money as a waiter. I don’t love missing breaks because we’re short staffed. I don’t love having to cancel any plans I had after work because I’m so exhausted. I don’t love telling my patients there is a 10-hour wait to see a doctor.

The Taoiseach should read it. He should know, having been involved in the health service, that these are the lives that they lead. Unless this dispute is resolved by putting pay at its centre and treating them justly, the Taoiseach cannot continue to stand here, earning six times what a nurse earns. Is he worth six nurses? I think six nurses are worth much more. We cannot contain that situation forever. Pay has to be put at the heart of this and Joe Public knows that is the reason because Joe Public wants a better health service and knows that unless we pay and retain nurses, we will continue with 3,000 children waiting to see a psychiatrist for the first time, a trolley crisis, and a health service that is creaking at the seams. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health cannot resolve it unless they deal with pay for nurses. The Taoiseach may end up dealing with it but he should not blame the nurses with regard to Brexit or for the cancellations that may take place because of tomorrow's strike or next week's strikes.

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