Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This morning, I was talking to People Before Profit MLA, Mr. Gerry Carroll, about his involvement in supporting and standing with junior doctors who have been on the picket lines in a series of walkouts in the North over the failure to get decent pay and decent conditions. It is a very familiar story of the junior doctors saying they are not valued, they are working ridiculous hours and their pay has not kept pace with inflation. Many of them are just choosing to leave and go and work elsewhere, where pay and conditions are better. Interestingly, he also reported that, as confirmed by the audit committee, in the past five years €2 billion was sent back to the Tory Government for unspent capital payments. It is pretty ironic that €2 billion was sent back to the Tory Government when it cannot pay the junior doctors who actually keep the health service going. It is pretty outrageous.

I would like to hear whether the Taoiseach has any message to those junior doctors, because we support them. They are absolutely right. If we want a health service that functions in the North, we need to pay junior doctors properly and give them decent conditions. However, it is also maybe something we should think about down here. Last week, I met a junior doctor who is working here and who is homeless - actually homeless. I could not believe it. We have to address the situation of workers like junior doctors in the health service if they are forced to go out and strike, as they are in the North or, indeed, are suffering homelessness, as some are down here, incredibly.

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