Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the speakers today for their considered thoughts on such an important matter. I reiterate what my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, said about the value we must place on medical scientists in our healthcare service. I pay tribute to the dedication, professionalism and commitment of all medical scientists throughout the country. They worked tirelessly during the pandemic and their efforts in testing Covid-19 samples were, and still are, very significant. The Government recognises the extraordinary contribution made by those working in our health services, which is evidenced by the decision taken earlier this year to provide a pandemic bonus payment to Covid-exposed front-line workers.

The strike has led to serious disruptions across the sector, including the cancellation of urgent elective surgeries such as time-sensitive surgery for patients with cancers and other very serious conditions. I welcome the decision of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association to lift its strike action and to attend today's exploratory engagement at the Labour Court. The Government recognises that all of the State's industrial relations machinery should be utilised to resolve the matter.

I acknowledge the extreme pressure that this cohort of staff has been under due to staff shortages. It is true that recruitment difficulties for this role exist. The current medical scientist workforce stood at 2,135 whole-time equivalents as of the end of March 2022, with 260 vacancies. It is important to note that there is a clearly defined grade structure with promotional opportunities for medical scientists within the HSE. While the number of basic grade medical scientists has indeed reduced since 2019, the numbers of senior and specialist grade medical scientists have increased. Overall, since 2019, there has been a 6% growth in the number of medical scientists employed by the HSE. Each hospital group is progressing recruitment on an ongoing basis and utilising strategies to attract and retain staff, which includes a focused approach on the attraction of new graduates to careers in the public healthcare service. The HSE plans to undertake a national recruitment campaign to promote the role of medical scientist both nationally and internationally. The focus of this recruitment drive will provide additional candidates for national vacancies across the system and for priority services.

In the context of recruitment and expansion, I will briefly reference Dr. Gabriel Scally's scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck screening programme in 2018, which included the examination of the laboratory services used by the CervicalCheck programme. Arising from recommendations of Dr. Scally's report, a strategic decision was made in 2018 to develop a national cervical screening laboratory, NCSL. This is due to open in the coming weeks, building capacity and resilience into the public element of the laboratory services required for the national cervical screening programme in Ireland. It will enable the National Screening Service to reduce its dependency on third-party providers to meet the needs of the CervicalCheck programme. The new laboratory is designed to become the principal provider of cervical screening laboratory services for the National Screening Service over time. It will also serve as a national base for training, education and research purposes. Some €20 million has been committed for construction, fit-out and staffing of the NCSL. A workforce plan is currently being developed to address workforce resilience. This new laboratory will require trained medical scientists, along with many other trained professionals.

At present, qualification and registration to become a medical scientist involves a four-year programme at undergraduate level. There are currently 105 training places annually across the universities in Ireland to produce graduates for both the public and private sectors. In recent years, on average, over half of these graduates have joined the HSE. The HSE is leading a project to progress advanced practice in the health and social care professions in Ireland. It encompasses developing an overarching framework incorporating all the key considerations and factors, including an agreed definition and approach across the professions, core competencies, a planned approach to meeting educational requirements, governance and regulatory considerations which can inform policy development in this area. The work carried out as part this project aims to help address staffing shortages in the health services, including in the medical scientist profession, and to support retention of health and social care professionals who might otherwise be lost due to lack of opportunities for career progression in clinical roles. HSE projections for future years indicate a requirement for an additional supply of qualified graduates from the Irish labour market. This could be achieved through an increase in the number of undergraduates taken on the relevant colleague courses, a specific graduate entry programme or both.

I will briefly address the issues surrounding the current public service pay agreement, Building Momentum, and its impact on the MLSA's claim for pay parity between medical scientists and biochemists. As the Minister stated, the MLSA is part of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. This means that it is bound by the terms of Building Momentum for the remainder of its lifetime. Under this agreement, sectoral bargaining provides that long-standing and outstanding claims can be fully or partially resolved using funding provided under the agreement. As advised, discussions have been ongoing for many months with the aim of finding a resolution to this matter. Unfortunately, the sectoral bargaining pot available to the MLSA is not sufficient to resolve the issue in full.

As an agreement could not be reached at local level, the MLSA was invited to attend a meeting of the public service agreement group on 31 March. At that point the MLSA called off strike action which had been scheduled for late March or early April. The suspension of the strike was welcomed by health management and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. On 31 of March, the public service agreement group agreed that the MLSA and health management should return to local engagement to attempt to find a solution to the matter. All parties involved wanted to see a resolution to this matter and the parties were, therefore, given more time to find a solution. New, alternative proposals were considered but unfortunately none could successfully resolve the matter. As no agreement on resolving the claim could be reached at local level, the public service agreement group met again on 11 May to reconsider the MLSA's claim. It was at this point that it recommended that the matter be immediately referred to the WRC and that industrial peace be maintained in the meantime.

I reiterate the extremely valued role of medical scientists within the health system. The Department is fully cognisant of the current recruitment challenges in the profession but, as stated, tangible campaigns and projects are under way to address the issue. We acknowledge the medical scientists' claim for pay parity. We acknowledge the significant impact of industrial action on patient care across the health system and we will continue to engage on the issue through the Labour Court.

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