Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy's point but, as she knows, before a formal invitation issues one would like to know there is a basis for it to be accepted. A lot of informal work and contact goes on all of the time between parties with a view to getting the right basis to facilitate participation in these mechanisms at the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court. Each year approximately half of the graduates from the colleges go to the health service. There has been a significant increase in senior posts and specialist posts over the past three years and that is the way it should be. We want to continue to invest in the service. We are working to make sure we can get a proper basis and an invitation process in place that would lead to participation by all concerned in the labour relations machinery of the State to get this dispute settled.

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