Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Those are the facts. When it comes to the health service workers, the Taoiseach talks about the other side but he is the other side because it was the Government which confirmed that it would try to pay this out in 2021. This has been going on since 2015. We are not responsible for how the Government deals with the wider issues and the mismanagement of big projects such as broadband and the children's hospital. When it comes to something already agreed as far back as 2015 the Government is saying "No" to the workers, for example, the chefs whose additional pay would cost approximately €2 million, and that it wants them to go to the Labour Court but before they do that, it wants to fix the outcome by imposing preconditions on how the dispute gets referred to the Labour Court. That is exactly what is happening because the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform confirmed that the money would be considered for payment in 2021, possibly in a successor agreement. The review that took place in 2017 recommended that chefs be linked to craft workers’ pay scales. The HSE asked for that to be done and agreed to it but the Government decided they should not get it. That was approximately €2.9 million for the 2019 estimate. Let us stop the pretence here. It is the Government that is saying it will not pay this, notwithstanding the agreement, and that it wants to kick it out to 2021. Is that not the official Government position?

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