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

Tá ról faoi leith ag na heolaithe leighis sa chóras sláinte. Bhí an ról sin soiléir le linn na paindéime. Admhaím go bhfuil ceist ann agus go bhfuil siad ag lorg parity idir iad féin agus na clinical biochemists le fada an lá anois. Is í an chaoi is fearr chun na ceisteanna seo a réiteach ná trí cainteanna laistigh den phróiseas atá ann chun ceisteanna den saghas seo a réiteach. I mo thuairim, dá mbeadh cainteanna substaintiúla ann, beimis in ann na ceisteanna seo a réiteach sa deireadh.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I acknowledge and pay tribute to the dedication, professionalism and commitment of medical scientists throughout the country. They were instrumental and crucial in respect of our response to Covid-19 and the pandemic, and are clearly an intricate part of the delivery of care within our health service. The MLSA wants pay parity between medical scientists and clinical biochemists. It was recommended by an expert group in 2000 or 2001. That was broken by benchmarking between the two grades at the time of the 2002 benchmarking process. There is a clearly defined grade structure with promotional opportunities for medical scientists within the HSE. The Building Momentum public service agreement provided for sectoral bargaining within that overall framework. In addition to that, we believe it is particularly important that this gets into a proper process either in the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, or within the Labour Court. In my view, optimal use must be made of the industrial relations machinery of the State - whether that be the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, or the Labour Court - in regard to resolving this issue. Significant informal contact occurred over the weekend on the issue of getting all sides into the process at the WRC or the Labour Court to get this resolved within a broad industrial relations framework.

At the end of the day, the Government wants a resolution of this. I am sure the MLSA wants a resolution on behalf of medical laboratory scientists. However, such a resolution must always of conscious of potential implications and relativities, and so on. It must be clearly and transparently done and signed off in respect of the processes in play. The objective of all the informal contacts over the weekend has been to get people comfortable about going into a process, in terms of a proper outcome for all concerned. We are anxious to get this resolved. There has been overall growth in the number of medical scientists of about 6% since 2019. I acknowledge there have been increases at the higher level but not at the basic grade.

We want to improve that. The HSE is embarking on a recruitment campaign. Additional funding is being made available in the Estimates for 2022 to facilitate that. Approximately 160 development posts are being recruited in addition to replacement posts.

The resolution of this lies in the full utilisation of the labour relations machinery of the State.

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