Mary Lou McDonald: Ambulance Workers Deserve Fair Pay Now

Taoiseach, today frontline emergency workers are on strike. Paramedics, advanced paramedics, specialist paramedics, emergency medical technicians, supervisors, all on strike. People who save lives are on the picket line. They stand there as a result of your government's refusal to resolve long-standing pay conditions and staffing issues. Ambulance workers don't want to be on strike. They want to be at work helping people, saving lives. But you've forced them to fight for respect, for recognition and for fair pay. And it is to their credit that they will continue to respond to life-threatening situations during this stoppage. Taoiseach, this strike could have been avoided but you let the situation fester for six years. Back in 2020 an independent report recommended the modernization of ambulance services. This was to be driven by the upskilling of frontline staff and the delivery of pay that recognized their enhanced roles. Ambulance workers kept their side of the deal. They've taken on advanced training, education and additional responsibilities. They've transformed this service from a transport service to full pre-hospital emergency care. But your government broke your side of the deal, Taoiseach. For years now you've refused to deliver the fair pay ambulance workers deserve. You've left the ambulance system stretched to breaking point. Six years ago you were told that more than two and a half thousand additional ambulance workers were needed by this year. Only 500 have been recruited since. So overworked paramedics are under extreme pressure, struggling to plug the gap caused by acute staff shortages. And patients pay the price. People left waiting far too long for an ambulance and it is particularly bad in rural areas where it can be hundreds of miles to the nearest hospital. And people have died after delays in an ambulance getting to them. And Taoiseach, you are aware of this. I previously raised with you the harrowing death of Stephen Lavelle in Mayo and there have been others. I spoke with one paramedic yesterday and she told me this. We've children to feed, bills to pay, rent, mortgage, kids in college with big fees. The strike is the last thing that we want but we have no other option. This could be sorted out at the stroke of a pen if the ministry just looked at the work we do and ensured that we are paid fairly. But Minister Carol McNeill refuses to intervene. Indeed yesterday at a meeting in Clare the Minister shocked people when she referred to paramedics and EMTs as ambulance drivers. And there's the problem in a nutshell. Your government is blind to the expertise and skill of those who save lives every day. You ask ambulance workers to upskill and then refuse to pay for it properly. You're inaction, your refusal to listen has effectively left people without an ambulance service today. So what are you going to do about it? So far you stood back as a commentator but you're not a commentator, you are the Taoiseach. The striking ambulance workers are right to demand fair pay, proper conditions and safe staffing. When will you deliver that? I must say Deputy that is a very very dishonest portrayal and presentation of the situation and you must know that in your heart of hearts that was very dishonest and a distortion of what has actually happened. Surely you realise that the HSE has been engaged with the trade unions for quite some time on this issue and by the way over well over two decades now the state has invested very significantly in our national ambulance service, in pre-emergency hospital care, in the first responder area in terms of modernisation, transformation. Going back well over two decades that has been a continuing reality and to be fair to all involved including those working on the front line they have participated in that transformation, they sought that transformation. I was involved myself going back to the early parts of the 2000s in establishing the pre-ambulances emergency care council but in terms of discordant dispute, you know the state has always accepted that pay structures need to be modernised and previous engagements at the WRC actually concluded with very significant outcomes and in particular the state offering to pay increases of somewhere between, depending on grades and so on, three and fourteen percent linked to reform and that was on top of the 9.25 percent increase under the current public service agreement. Now union leadership recommended this proposal to their members. So how can you use language like we refuse to resolve, force them to fight, let it fester for six years? Negotiations, no sorry I didn't, negotiations happened through the chair, negotiations happened, there was an agreed outcome, it was recommended by the two unions to the members, now the members are entitled to vote against it except that point which your portrayal of this is clearly dishonest when said against the facts and this is not something we should play politics with because people need the services of first responders and what the HSE is saying and what government is saying and I'm saying is the only way to resolve this is through dialogue and through exhausting the well-established industrial relations machinery of the state, either the WRC or the labour court but it's very clear the HSE remains available to meet and engage with the unions and there will have to be discussions on this and the investment has been significant. I mean overall funding is up 41 percent, up to 285 million, that's between 2022 and 2025. So a 41 percent increase is significant, staffing is up 28 percent, bringing total numbers to 2655, about 126 million has been invested in the ambulance fleet, a further investment of 20 million is planned for 2026 with additional recruitment expected to bring the total workforce up further to an extra 263 and there are also plans to deliver 21 extra crewed ambulances at peak demand for intermediate care vehicles and continued development of clinical hubs and alternative care pathways and then in terms of the reforms, strengthening workforce availability, supporting new models of care, so expanded use of special paramedics and community in urgent care settings was part of the agreement or what was negotiated in ensuring and then in terms of workforce availability, that's around night time and weekend service and so on, critical and air ambulance services, expansion of those, so that's critical care retrieval, that was all part of what was negotiated with the unions, wider geographic and 24-7 coverage, recognition of modern clinical roles, updated grading and pay structures to reflect the evolution of paramedic and specialist paramedic roles into autonomous degree qualified professional regulated conditions, that was all negotiated. So if everything is so hunky-dory Taoiseach, why are they on strike? You're trying to suggest that the ambulance workers are wrong, you're trying to suggest that they are imagining the circumstances that they're in, here's the core dishonesty in your reply, this situation has dragged on for six years and you have demonstrated an absence of good faith, an absence of any respect, you asked the paramedics to step up, you asked them to upskill, to retrain, to take on greater responsibilities and they've done all of that and by the way they were happy to do it because they want the most excellent service that they can provide, but for your part you promised recognition, you promised staffing, you promised fair pay and you have not fulfilled that, so you have left them understaffed, overworked and underpaid, that's why they are on the picket line today and you know your minister said the quiet bit out loud, the ambulance drivers is how she described skilled professionals and paramedics, you have now on three occasions taken a very confrontational approach towards the SMA's, the agriculture department, you are out of order in your time, prepare in time deputy. You ignored the core reality that this was a negotiation, the government or DHC negotiated this with the unions, the unions recommended what was negotiated to the membership, you've ignored that reality, so that's not festering, that's not delaying, that's not letting things drift, there was very substantive agreement which would really modernise it even further, which would draw a lot more resources and investment, three to fourteen percent increase on top of the nine and a half percent increase, that's substantial by any yardstick in terms of public service pay and increases, but you just ignore all of that and as far as you're concerned, sorry I'm simply saying, yeah and I've said and what you should agree, you should agree with me in saying get back into talks, it's the only way to do this, there has to be discussions, there has to be dialogue, it's the only way we can resolve these and any disputes in the public service or indeed in the private sector for that matter, we have a good industrial relations machinery and it should be used and used properly and I believe it can be and it can pave the way, a pathway, to resolving this dispute. you