Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to share in the offering of condolences to the families in Donegal who are going through an unspeakable level of grief and pain today. The thoughts of this House are with Donegal in general, but in particular with the four families concerned and the wide circle of friends who have been impacted in such an extraordinary way. I thank the Deputy for raising that.

There are a couple of comments I would like to say in regard to the nurses strike yesterday. First, the Government understands the frustration and the resolve of nurses. We want to thank them for their pragmatism in regard to putting contingency plans in place yesterday and, although there was extraordinary disruption, there was also significant co-operation with management to ensure essential services were provided. I want to thank them for that.

The Government does not want to be at odds with nurses in Ireland. They are great people, doing very difficult work, often in very pressurised circumstances. We want to work with nurses, the INMO and the psychiatric nurses to build a better health service that can attract many young people into this profession. While some progress has been made in regard to recruitment over the past five years and well over 3,000 extra nurses have come into the system, we recognise the challenges around health recruitment generally at the moment. That is why the Government set up the Public Sector Pay Commission to look into healthcare and nursing specifically and to make recommendations. While I know the INMO has not been happy with that, it certainly was a significant effort by Government to recognise the challenges they face at the moment.

However, we have to have this conversation with nursing unions on the basis of the broader picture, which is a public sector pay agreement they have signed up to, we have signed up to and many other public servants and the unions they are part of have signed up to as well. What we are saying is that we want to talk. We want the Labour Court to do its job and work with management and Government and with nursing unions to make recommendations as a basis for a way forward that can avoid the impact of strike action for two days next week. We are serious about that and we want to engage, but we have to, as the Taoiseach has outlined repeatedly, ensure that we do that within the confines and parameters of a pay agreement which nurses themselves signed up to be part of.

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