Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on the point at which Deputy Smith left off. More than 500 paramedics in the National Ambulance Service have chosen to join the National Ambulance Service Representative Association to represent them. NASRA is a branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, the PNA, which is a recognised trade union with a negotiating licence.

The HSE continues to refuse to recognise the PNA and to allow it to negotiate on behalf of its ambulance membership. It refuses to recognise it for purposes of negotiations on behalf of the ambulance membership. This is despite the fact that the PNA contains within its ranks at least 30% of all NAS paramedics. This is far more than other unions recognised by the HSE as representing ambulance personnel. If it does not make the PNA the largest union among ambulance staff, it certainly makes it the second largest among the two big unions. I am surprised and a bit disappointed that the Sinn Féin motion makes no mention of this issue in its text because it is central to the points and issues that are being debated here. Why is the NAS so chronically understaffed? Why are ambulance personnel so chronically overworked? Why is there such a major shortfall in the number of ambulances available to the service compared to the numbers needed by the service and the public?

The answer to all these questions is, of course, that successive right-wing Governments have failed to invest in public services at anywhere near the level needed. However, a factor in the equation has undoubtedly been a lack of sufficient pressure for real change, including by what is probably the largest union in the service recognised by the HSE. It would appear that the HSE is choosing to recognise the union that does not put it under too much pressure for change and refusing to recognise the one it fears might do so. Despite a unanimous vote by Dáil Éireann that the PNA be recognised, it is clear at the very least that the HSE is not under any real pressure from the Government on this issue.

Recognition of the PNA is not simply an issue of democratic rights, although it is that; it is also an important democratic issue. It is an issue in the sense that if we want a properly resourced ambulance service, we need to listen to those front-line personnel among those pushing the hardest for it. This union should be recognised now and the Government needs to get off the fence regarding this issue.

I do not have sufficient time available to fully develop other points I want to deal with, but let me refer briefly to a point raised by Deputy Shortall on the UL course and its graduates. The latter could be a tremendous resource for the NAS and bring great skills to the paramedic service. The fact is that obstacles are being placed in the way of these graduates to join the service when it needs 3,000 staff. That is wrong and needs to be changed. The Government should address it and feel under pressure to do so based on this debate.

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