Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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55. To ask the Minister for Health the impacts that a strike by an organisation (details supplied) will have on waiting lists and the number of patients on trolleys; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26943/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Firstly, I wish to pay tribute to the commitment of all medical scientists throughout the country.

I acknowledge the MLSA’s claim for pay parity between medical scientists and clinical biochemists. The current public service pay agreement, Building Momentum, includes the process of Sectoral Bargaining to address outstanding claims. Under Building Momentum, sectoral bargaining is the sole mechanism through which the MLSA can advance their claim for pay parity.

The MLSA and Health management have been engaged in talks for many months to find a way to advance the claim through Sectoral Bargaining, however, the cost of their claim is substantially more than the bargaining fund available. Funding is available to partially resolve the claim within the current Agreement, but not to fully resolve it.

The issue was referred to the Public Service Agreement Group, and on May 11^th, the body recommended that the matter be referred to the WRC and that industrial peace be maintained.

While the MLSA agreed to engage at the WRC on May 17th, they did not lift their industrial action, in breach of the Building Momentum peace clause, and resulting in significant, and regrettable, disruption on the health service.

In order to mitigate the disruption caused by the strike, the HSE began cancelling inpatient and day-case elective procedures and hospital outpatient appointments, all to be rescheduled for as soon as possible. For example, in the Saolta group alone, over 400 procedures were cancelled last Wednesday across a range of specialties including medicine, general surgical procedures, endoscopy, orthopaedics, bronchoscopy, interventional radiology and others. Derogations were granted to allow the continuation of dialysis and some cancer services. At this point, the HSE has not had time to review fully the impact on patients and services of the stoppage on the 18th of May.

Health management remain open to engaging with the MLSA and will make every effort to ensure that a resolution is found as soon as possible.