Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

RTÉ has "Claire Byrne Live" but Leinster House has the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, show every Thursday for Topical Issue matters. I do not say that in jest, I say it because it is wrong that the Minister himself has not presented to deliver his own script. I have to say I am exasperated reading what we already know and the points we have already made. We heard that the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, NASRA, is a group which is not recognised by the HSE, that the legal position is very clear that the HSE and the National Ambulance Service have no obligation to recognise NASRA or the PNA for ambulance personnel, that the Minister has asked officials to explore the way forward and that the fact remains that the PNA does not have negotiating rights for ambulance grades. The bottom line is that this response tells us nothing that we did not already know. What we are asking for is the Minister to make a direct intervention to recognise that the NASRA branch of the PNA represents at least the second largest body of ambulance personnel in this State and they deserve respect and recognition, full stop.

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