Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As a champion of Bantry General Hospital, I would like the Dáil to know that last Wednesday, there were no laboratory service available and as a result, hundreds of tests were either cancelled or not processed. When we factor in that laboratory services were also withdrawn from Cork University Hospital, CUH, Mercy University Hospital and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, the number of affected patients in our constituency likely numbered in their hundreds from just one day.

I have received many emails on this issue, one of which was from a medical scientist in the cytology laboratory in CUH. She has worked in CUH for 17 years. She and her colleagues were, regrettably, on strike this week because of a long-standing pay dispute. Biochemists in the public laboratories do the same work as biomedical scientists, yet they are paid 8% more. Two colleagues are basically working side by side and one is paid more. This was addressed and agreed upon 20 years ago but it was rescinded very shortly after.

Laboratories right across the country are at breaking point. They absorbed all the extra work generated by Covid-19 with absolutely no extra staffing or resources. Covid-19 laboratories were set up overnight, which took staff from all disciplines to cope with the emergency. The laboratories are not just about blood tests. They do vital work across blood science, cancer care, attendance at bronchoscopy procedures, fine needles, rapid access clinics, head and neck clinics and everything in between.

Even if the pay parity is addressed, we are still left with a huge shortage of graduates. They do their in-service training and run to the private sector. I do not blame them. Their working conditions are so stressful. They are all asking the same thing. They do not want us standing in the Dáil clapping but instead engaging in meaningful talks with them and their unions. The Ministers for Health and Public Expenditure and Reform and their Department heads now need to get into a room with the unions as soon as possible. This 20-plus year farce must end now.

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