Dáil debates

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

 

12:05 pm

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Once again the members of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, NASRA, are protesting outside the gates because the Department of Health refuses to recognise their union. I plead with the Minister not to tell me that it is an inter-union dispute. For seven years union deductions were taken directly from these workers' wages and went to NASRA. This stopped because the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, admitted some months ago that the Department of Health would not recognise the union. I have this admission. The Department deals with other unions which the workers must join. They have a banner with the words "My Union, My Choice". The Government stood up for women's choice about what happened to their own bodies. Will it stand up for workers' right to choose the union they want to be in, rather than leaving them outside the gates of Leinster House, where they have appeared regularly since last January? Their union deductions have been stopped. The Department of Health is refusing to recognise the union, yet it includes the majority of paramedics and ambulance drivers throughout the country. Are workers and their rights invisible to the Government? It recognises wealthy people, for whom it does lots of favours in the budget. Workers need some recognition. Will the Minister get the Department of Health to stop blocking that recognition and deal with the union?

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