Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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97. To ask the Minister for Health the way that he plans to address the almost 400 medical laboratory scientist staff vacancies and to make these posts more attractive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26976/22]

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 across the health service.

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.

While I acknowledge that staff shortages exist in the Medical Scientist profession, since 2019 there has been a 6% growth in the number ofmedical scientists. The HSE plans to undertake recruitment campaign for Medical Scientists both nationally and internationally. Investment in development posts has been confirmed via the NSP 2022 and there are circa 160 development posts being recruited at this time in addition to replacement posts.