Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As it stands, there will be a nurses' strike in less than a week, the second strike in the 100-year history of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO. The Government has stuck to the line that to accept the pay claim would breach the public sector pay agreement. The agreement has been breached already as far as nursing is concerned. When I talk about nursing I am cognisant of the fact that nurses are supported by a valuable team of care workers who also have to be recognised for the valuable service they give within all the health institutions. As it stands, the Government employs up to 1,000 agency nurses per day, with many being paid up to 20% more than HSE nurses. The salary for Deputies was increased in the budget, increasing to more than €98,000 per year. The public sector pay agreement was to end the two-tier pay scale which affects 10,000 nurses. Problems with conditions at work and retention will not be addressed by refusing to engage with nurses. We all saw the photo of the young nurses on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. They asked the Government to simply give them a reason to come home. That is another issue. Nurses return to this country and their qualifications and experience abroad are not recognised within the system so they end up starting again on a much lower point on the pay scale than they were on for many years.

I am also deeply concerned that even more elective procedures and surgeries must be postponed. The current health care system is not acceptable. Citizens continue to die prematurely because of the failure of this State to provide timely diagnosis and treatment. That is a fact and it is wrong. I want the Minister for Finance to come into the House and at the very least explain why the Government will not even engage with the nursing unions. We all accept that pay claims and industrial disputes happen but the public have an expectation that the Government will do its best, through negotiation and mediation, to ensure that vital services are not impacted. I call again on the Government to engage with the nurses to provide the dynamic to effect positive change and make a career in nursing attractive to current and future nurses, and to ensure that nurses and other health care staff are working within institutions and an environment that is safe, not the high-risk environment they are forced to work in every day.