Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies who tabled this motion because it gives us a very welcome opportunity. I also welcome the medical scientists who are in the Gallery watching this and those who are tuned in. I pay tribute to them for their patience and determination. It is patience because, as we know, this issue has been going on for decades. When an industrial dispute can be characterised in terms of decades, that shows the people with responsibility for its resolution have not been stepping up to the plate.

I well recall that in 2006 medical scientists were among the first to sign up for extended working hours under Towards 2016. There has been a lot of talk about working hours in the health service but when what might be called reform or more time spent away from families, whatever words you want to put on it, was proposed, they signed up to it. As we know, the Government of which the Minister's party was a part walked away from that wage agreement. It got the productivity and trousered that, but was off when it came to giving pay increases in response to that. The flexibility the medical scientists have shown is to be admired. Like my colleagues, I was on the picket line with them this week and last week. They will tell you about how the job, the hours, the demands and the pressures have changed. The only thing that has not changed is the pay. The only thing that has substantially changed is that the inequality between those with whom they seek parity is getting worse.

This dispute is fairly easy to resolve. I get a little concerned when I hear people are going to the Labour Court for exploratory talks. I venture to suggest there has been quite a substantial amount of talking about an issue that is relatively straightforward. I have some experience in industrial relations and sometimes things are genuinely very complicated but sometimes they are just about a straightforward pay equality claim. We need to separate the two. I am very hopeful a resolution will come out of the Labour Court. The person who is our current Tánaiste, when he was campaigning for the leadership of his party, cited that in some instances he wanted Labour Court recommendations to be made compulsory. I am very relieved he has not quite got around to that. We know it has not gone away. As I said at the time, I know a good, old-fashioned, Thatcherite, no-strike clause when I see one. That is in fact what it was.

The good news for the MLSA and its members is a recommendation will, it is hoped, come from the Labour Court. At that stage, they will have a chance to have their say because it will not be down to us as politicians to interfere in that part of the process. They will have a chance to ballot on whatever that recommendation is, to decide if it satisfies their very long-standing claim and if is something they can live with. At that stage, should they reject that recommendation, they know they will be back onto the picket line. I know from talking to them that if that is the place they have to go, they will, but they do not want to.

It is a tactic of the Government that has caused this delay and this dispute to be protracted. The Minister cannot walk into this Chamber and say this is a desperate situation that has been going on for 20 years, as if successive governments have not had a hand in this. It is a tactic. It was a tactic when I was on my tools, and it is a tactic now, to only send people to the debating or discussion forum of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, or the Labour Relations Commission as was, who do not have the capacity to resolve the dispute. People are sitting across the table with officials from the Minister's Department, who I know have done their best, and officials from the HSE who want to resolve it. They do not want to be running in and out. They have other work to be doing, as have the medical scientists. They are saying they want this resolved but then everyone looks around and says, "Who is here with the chequebook? Nobody." Everybody then goes home. It is an absolute tactic because it could not be happening as often as it is unless it was.

I sincerely hope the message has come from the Government, not specifically from the Minister's Department, but from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, that the resources will be there. Nobody is disputing this will require resources to settle. There is no point in people going to the Labour Court if the resources are not going to be there because otherwise we will just be back in the Chamber in a couple of weeks' time having the same debate. That does not do anyone any favours. It does not do the people in the Gallery, patients and the process of industrial relations any favours. In fact, it is disrespectful to the process of industrial relations to come to the Chamber, as the Minister, the Taoiseach and others have done, and say we must leave this up to the industrial relations mechanisms of the State, as if it is some sort of magic Aladdin's cave where we go in and come out with a resolution. There is no point in going to the WRC or any negotiating forum unless people are sitting across the table eyeballing the person with the chequebook. It is a waste of everybody's time otherwise.

I very much hope the Minister will use his good offices to prevail on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to ensure this dispute is resolved and make that clear by ensuring officials from all relevant Departments and agencies are represented at the Labour Court, so the message goes out the Government is minded to settle this dispute and does not want to see medical scientists back on the picket line.

I have been involved in more than one dispute, and the Minister should believe me when I say the members watch these disputes very closely. They watch the body language and see what it means for a potential resolution to their own disputes. They see when the Government is serious and when it plays for time. With the greatest of respect, 20 years is enough playing for time. I sincerely hope the tactic, which is what it is, of sending only half a team to ensure a dispute is not resolved will be suspended and that real and genuine efforts will be made to settle this long-running dispute, which we all want to see settled.

See this speech in context