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

We are 14 hours precisely from the placing of pickets on hospitals across the country as part of the nurses' strike. The fact that strike is happening is an indication of the crises that exist in the health service, of which the nurses are at the front line, and a scenario whereby their wages are inadequate.

They endure pay inequality and they cannot survive considering the cost of living increases, particular in respect of housing. That strike looks as if it will go ahead.

It is also only one week since we had a day-long strike of 500 paramedics in the National Ambulance Service, NAS. I was on the picket line last Tuesday with those workers, as were many of my colleagues. I can report back to the Government that the strike had great public support. A lot of people were beeping indicating their support for the strike. I can report back that the paramedics who are organised in SIPTU refused to cross the picket line and the strike was incredibly successful. If the Government does not know, I can tell it that the paramedics gave reports of the kind of difficult working conditions that they face. They are also underpaid and they are at the very front line of an under-resourced health service and dealing with people at the first point of contact in difficult circumstances. They have very difficult jobs.

Some 98% of them voted for strike action in this instance for a simple reason. They are part of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, NASRA, which is a branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA. The HSE refuses to engage with the union of those 500 workers, who make up a significant proportion of ambulance workers. It refuses to engage with the union of choice of these workers. It is outrageous that a public sector employer would refuse to engage and it gives a green light to private sector employers to engage in the short of union busting we have seen.

See this speech in context