Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State taking the time today to discuss this important issue. I have had numerous inquiries over recent weeks from the Psychiatric Nurses Association ambulance drivers, who are the National Ambulance Service Representative Association union members, asking if there has been any contact or dialogue between the Minister of State's Department and the HSE regarding the union's aim to gain official union recognition.

Before Covid-19, we all stood in solidarity with these ambulance drivers. We all promised outside the Dáil that we would listen, engage and seek to help these ambulance workers in NASRA fighting for trade union recognition and fighting to be heard. There has been a refusal by the HSE to afford these hard-working ambulance personnel, many of whom we have relied on heavily over recent months, the right to be members of, and represented by, the union of their choice. The HSE has been invited on three occasions to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, but this step in the HSE framework on dispute resolutions has, to my knowledge, not happened. Will the Minister of State's Department confirm that the HSE wishes to resolve this dispute and has agreed to engage with these members?

More than 500 PNA ambulance members wish to be represented by the recognised trade union of their choice. It is not good enough just to keep ploughing money into private operators to avoid the conversation. In my home of Carlow-Kilkenny, we have an excellent hospital which does an excellent job. All the staff and all the members are paramedics. Today, we have 34 cases of Covid-19. The hospital has been forced to close the outpatient clinic and has asked patients to stay away from the accident and emergency department.

I ask that the Minister of State do whatever he can because we realise how important lives are, and 34 cases is quite a lot. I know everybody is doing their best but these paramedics have come to me for months now and I have brought this up, first in the Seanad and now in the Dáil. I believe they should be allowed to have the union of their choice. These paramedics work hard and have worked hard during Covid-19. They have been exceptional and we can be proud of them. I would like to have the Minister of State's answer.

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