Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Front-line workers in the health service have been selfless and have made big sacrifices. At the end of May it was reported that 8,000 health service personnel had contracted the Covid-19 virus with 9% of them having contracted it in the workplace, which underlines the point about the selfless work that has been done here.

Throughout society, it has become commonplace to applaud the work of health service workers. Ministers have joined in doing that. However, it is not right that health service workers would be applauded one month and denied their entitlements the next. Nurses, ambulance personnel, hospital workers and others are among the 330,000 public service workers who are due a 2% pay increase under the current pay agreement in October. The proposed programme for Government is silent on this. It contains an aspiration to have a new public service pay deal, but is silent on the issue of honouring the agreement that was made with these workers. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has said that it is an issue for the new Government, which I understand and accept. I also understand that, strictly speaking, it is in the remit of his Department and not that of the Department of Health, but Deputy Harris has been Minister for Health during the Covid crisis and he has seen at first hand the work done and sacrifices made by our health service workers. Is he prepared to join us in saying that these workers fully deserve to have that commitment followed through on and that the pay increase due to them in October should be honoured? I ask him to outline his position on that.

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