I want to ask the Taoiseach two or three straightforward questions about the nurses' dispute. I read in the newspapers this morning that more Government backbenchers believe that they are likely to lose their seats than otherwise because of the manner of the handling of this dispute. Up and down the country the Taoiseach will have encountered the widespread and acute concern about the state of the health services and the hospitals crisis in particular. I think he will agree that whoever is responsible for the shambles that is the health service, it is not the front-line nurses. Why are these front-line staff so alienated from the social partnership system? Will the Taoiseach give the statistics a miss this morning and say what is Government policy on this issue? Does the Taoiseach support the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, or his backbenchers who want to see the talks convened as soon as possible?

He supports both. He should give up.

In particular, does the Government require the nurses' unions to resolve this matter through the benchmarking process? Is that the only process open to them? If there is an alternative route, will the Taoiseach tell the House what it is?

On the particular claims, does the Taoiseach accept that his friends, the builders, are the people mainly responsible for driving nurses to industrial action because they can no longer afford to live in this city and in parts of the country? What is the Government's attitude towards providing a Dublin allowance for the nurses concerned?

My colleagues on the Fianna Fáil backbenches are entitled, when they receive representations from interest groups, to report what those groups have said to them, and they did no more than that. They raised no criticism whatsoever of the Minister for Health and Children, me or the Minister for Finance, who outlined Government policy in this area. There is not a different viewpoint from the Minister for Health and Children, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance. Our stated position has been the same throughout the negotiations on this issue.

In my capacity as Leader of Fianna Fáil, I met both the INO and the Psychiatric Nurses Association, as requested, to explain the position and try to help them in the difficulties. The Minister, Deputy Harney, has been in negotiations for a number of months and is doing everything she can to help the nurses. There is no criticism whatsoever of the efforts made——

They thought the Taoiseach would back their claim.

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

——nor has there been criticism from any of my colleagues of the Minister, Deputy Harney.

The position with the nurses is that there have been long negotiations. I have no time to go into the matter in detail, but the INO and the PNA state that they have neither accepted nor rejected the Labour Court recommendation, which urged both unions to progress their claims through benchmarking. They have left the position in limbo. The other unions have accepted the social partnership process.

The INO and the PNA have put forward a lengthy number of claims which more recently seem to boil down to two issues. Both of those issues are extremely costly on the Exchequer. With their knock-on effect, the cost would range from between €500 million and €1 billion. Deputy Rabbitte will accept that nobody can negotiate on that basis.

The Deputy asked what is our position. There is no doubt about the major contribution which nurses make to the health care system. Neither is there any doubt about the Government's commitment to ensuring that nurses are paid properly and fairly for the work they do. We recognise that there are issues of concern to nurses and that they perceive that there are significant inequities in their current position. They have highlighted what those issues are to the HSE and to the negotiating body. I have acknowledged, as has the Minister for Health and Children, that these problems must be addressed. How they are addressed is the only issue in contention.

Tell us.

They have been through the Labour Court process. Nurses form a significant part of the public service workforce and, as in all the discussions on public service pay since 1946, these issues are taken together. We have agreed a basis on which pay and conditions for the public service as a whole should be managed and we have created the benchmarking body precisely to provide an objective means of assessing whether particular groups or professions are properly dealt with. The benchmarking body is due to report in the second half of the year and is in a position to review the problems and anomalies the nursing profession feels strongly about.

Regarding the general pay issue, an increase of 10% is available to nurses represented by the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association under the terms of Towards 2016. The nurses have refused to sign up to the terms of that agreement, which applies across the entire public service and the private sector. This is the only reason they have not received their first phase increase, as all the other public servants have. Our position on the point made by the INO has been effectively endorsed in detail by the Labour Court. I always agree with the Labour Court, irrespective of whether it suits the Government, and that is the position I take. Members will understand that, apart from the issue of public service pay, setting aside Labour Court recommendations on crucial issues is not a sensible path to follow.

The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, and I have tried to do everything we can to help. We have pointed out to the nurses' unions how they should deal with this issue, as has the Labour Court, and I have explained this to them in our recent discussions.

The Taoiseach has described for the House the role of his backbenchers as messengers and postmen and he has described how the benchmarking process works and what it was set up to do. He has also told us he has met the nurses and sympathises with them. We have all met the nurses and we all have admiration for the work they do. I am trying to establish what the Government's policy is on the resolution of this dispute. When the Taoiseach says he always adopts Labour Court recommendations is he saying benchmarking is the only way forward in terms of resolving this dispute? I think that is a straightforward question. The nurses want an answer to this as do we on this side of the House.

The Taoiseach has avoided the issue of runaway house prices that has led to unrest in many areas among middle and low income workers. He may set this matter aside if he wishes but I will put my question again. Is the Taoiseach saying, in line with requests from backbenchers and the Committee on Health and Children, that the Health Service Executive, HSE, should sit down and do business with the nurses or is he saying this can only be done through the benchmarking process? I will not get a second chance to speak on this matter and the question is straightforward. Is the Taoiseach saying to the nurses of Ireland that their dispute can be resolved, but only through the benchmarking process?

I met the nurses' groups in recent weeks and the leaders of both organisations were there, so they know the answer.

Can the Taoiseach give us the answer?

Tell us.

Tell us.

I will answer Deputy Rabbitte as he asked me the question. I informed the nurses of the position when I met them. They did not ask me to tailor future pay increases based on house prices around Ireland, for example giving greater increases where house prices are higher, so we should stop trying to raise such nonsense.

The position is that the Minister for Health and Children wrote to the INO and PNA on 22 December, setting out the Government's viewpoint, suggesting an exploratory meeting between officials from the two unions in the context of the Labour Court's recommendations. That meeting was held on 19 January and the management side confirmed the acceptance of those recommendations and its willingness to hold discussions on the claim for reduced working hours, as recommended by the court.

The Labour Court pointed out in its recommendation that, over and above the matter of pay which was properly covered in Towards 2016 and must be dealt with through benchmarking, engagement on a broad basis should be conducted to enable issues such as the length of the working week to be addressed on a sustainable basis. I want to emphasise that the Government is fully prepared to engage in those discussions.