Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take the opportunity to offer my condolences to the Fianna Fáil Party on the death of Councillor Manus Kelly in the past couple of days. He was a phenomenal motor sportsman and must have been enormously proud to have been elected to Donegal County Council for Letterkenny. I offer our condolences to the Fianna Fáil Party on what must have been very shocking news in the past few days.

On the dispute, as the Deputy pointed out, we have many people working in the health service. About 115,000 people work across the public health service, which represents an increase of about 10,000 in three years. Notwithstanding the genuine difficulties we have in recruitment and retention, we have still managed to recruit an extra 10,000 staff in the past three years. It is a challenging environment in which to work, not least owing to rising demand as the population increases and ages and also the increasing expectations of patients and service users of the kind of service they should receive.

There has been detailed engagement involving the parties to the dispute, most recently at the WRC, both yesterday and this week. The dispute relates to a particular pay increase arising from a job evaluation process. All 10,000 of the staff involved will receive a pay increase of 2.75% this year. That is in the bag and half of it has been paid already, with the rest to be paid in September. The vast majority will also receive an incremental pay increase. It is about the timing of a third pay increase this year - the pay increase that arises from the job evaluation process.

The Government accepts the outcome of the job evaluation process. What is in dispute is how it will be funded, how it will be timed and, therefore, how it will be phased in. The initial response from the Government side - the employer's side - was that it should be paid in 2021 when all of the evaluation process was complete. It is not yet fully complete; I believe three phases of five have been completed. However, to try to come to an agreement in the past couple of days, the employer's side - the Government side - agreed to begin to phase in the pay increases this year. Even though there is no provision for it in the budget, out of good will and in an effort to resolve the dispute, an offer was made to begin phasing in the increases from 2019. It will be a third increase on top of an incremental pay increase and the 2.75% being received under the public service stability agreement, PSSA. Unfortunately, the offer was not accepted by the unions which have now decided to go ahead with the strike. The offer made last Friday stands - for the dispute to go to the Labour Court for binding arbitration. Where disputes cannot be resolved, where they are intractable, where it has not been possible to find a compromise at the WRC, in the past we have gone to the Labour Court. The employer's side - the Government side - is willing to go to the Labour Court for a binding determination. We regret that the union side is not willing to do so. It is unusual for a union to refuse to go to the Labour Court.

See this speech in context