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

We have an obligation to be honest with people. We want to work with nurses. We want to find a solution to this dispute. We want to treat them with respect. We want to use our imagination to try to find a way of doing that within the confines of an agreement to which they and we have signed up. We want to make sure that we can afford to do that so that we do not risk the financial stability of the country again. Surely we have learned those lessons. We should try to be honest with people. We take the point. We are hearing what nurses are saying. We are hearing what the public are saying in terms of their sympathy with nurses but we have to make decisions in a way that is consistent and responsible and linked to agreements already signed up to and to find ways within those parameters of using our imagination in a way that can help and improve work and conditions for nurses. That is what we will do but we will be honest with them, unlike the Deputy.

See this speech in context