Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There are many points I could make about the programme for Government commitments that the Taoiseach made but given that I spent early this morning down on the picket lines with auxiliary health workers at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, I think it is fair to ask about two particular commitments made in that programme. One was for a fair and inclusive prosperity and the other was a commitment to honour agreements with public sector workers. On both of those counts, when one looks at those auxiliary health workers, who were forced out on strike, the Government has failed to meet those commitments. It was apparent and telling that these workers in the National Rehabilitation Hospital were very reluctant to be out on strike because, given the nature of the patients they have to deal with, they have quite a personal relationship with them and any suffering or hardship those patients go through is unpalatable to them. They felt they had no choice because they had taken a hammering during the austerity period.

The Government recommended setting up an independent body to evaluate their jobs. It was that body, and not the health workers themselves, that recommended they should get these increases based on the fact that their jobs had been upskilled and the nature of them had changed. They have been waiting for those increases, and accepted the waiting time, but they now feel they have waited long enough. The Government has not honoured its commitments and these people are not getting a fair crack of the whip. What does the Taoiseach say to them?

They did not want to be on the picket line but they were determined that the Government had reneged on its promises to them and they were not being treated fairly for the vital work they do in our hospitals.

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