The reason nurses and midwives are on picket lines today is the Taoiseach's failures. I refer to his inaction and absolute failure not just in regard to the pay issue but the recruitment and retention crisis associated with it. I stopped to stand on picket lines with nurses and midwives this morning on my way to work. I was at Temple Street, the Rotunda and the Mater hospitals. Nobody to whom I spoke this morning wanted to be on strike; in fact, it is the very last thing they want. They are upset and angry. They want to be at work and they are aware better than anyone else of the stresses and strains their hospitals are under. However, they are resolute. They feel they have been failed and let down, they have not been listened to and they have been backed into a corner and, therefore, they have taken the action of last resort, which is to strike.

They reject the Taoiseach's reaching for the Brexit excuse. In fact, that made them more angry. I suspect when they hear that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, is also running for cover behind Brexit, they will be even more deeply angered. As the Taoiseach noted, they have broad support from the public and there is a reason for that. People recognise the quality of care delivered by staff who are underpaid in unbelievably difficult circumstances, particularly in emergency departments but not only there. They are astonished that the Taoiseach, above all people, because he is a medical doctor, does not grasp or get this. They are annoyed that he is sitting on the sidelines. He is acting as a commentator, a dispassionate observer of events. He is in charge, he is the Head of Government, he is the employer, and he has a duty not to pass the buck on this issue and to intervene.

Nurses and midwives are not looking for a special deal. They are not looking for condescension and to be told to wrap up warm and well. They are not looking for sympathy. They are not looking for tears. They are not looking for praise. They are looking for a just and fair settlement. They believe that it can be achieved within the scope of the current pay agreement. That is their view. What they want the Taoiseach to do, as Head of Government, is to come off the sidelines and to engage.

I assume that he accepts that there is a recruitment and retention crisis in nursing. That is a fact. The figures on agency nursing tell us part of that story. I also assume that he accepts that nurses, who are incredibly well qualified, deserve to be well paid, and not insulted by being treated almost as second-class employees within the system. He has accepted that those workers are resolute in their position and that they will not back down.

The time is up.

I invite the Taoiseach, therefore, to take the next logical step, and commit to directly and personally intervene and engage. I ask that of him today as Head of Government.

I am not entirely sure there were any questions there or solutions, just commentary. We have a mechanism by which industrial relations disputes are resolved - and all industrial relations disputes are resolved - namely, the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. They are State bodies and that is the mechanism through which we will engage and, I have no doubt, in due course resolve this dispute.

I accept that recruitment and retention is a real issue for the nursing and midwifery profession but it is important to understand what that means and what it does not mean. The number of nurses working in the public health service has increased by more than 3,000 in the past five years since the recruitment embargo was lifted. The number of nurses working in the public health service in December 2018 compared with December 2017 is 860 higher. That does not include student nurses. The impression created by some that there are more nurses leaving the country than coming into the country is not correct. The impression created by some that there are more nurses leaving the public service than are entering it is also not correct. Those are the facts and I hope the Deputy will at least acknowledge them.

Are the pictures of our young nurses in Melbourne and Sydney and all around the globe asking the Taoiseach to give them a reason to come home fake news? If he will pardon the pun, are they doctored images? I do not believe that they are. People know that certain nursing staff go abroad for a year but then they come back but the reality now is that we are losing so many of our best and brightest and they are not coming back.

I refer to another fact. There is a strike on today. How is that for a fact? As the Taoiseach acknowledged, procedures have been cancelled. How is that for a fact? Should any of us or our loved ones get sick, every man, woman and child in this land want the best of care for them. All of us know that is only possible if one has the right staff and one will only have the right staff if they are treated with dignity and they are paid and rewarded at an appropriate level. How are those for facts?

What nurses and midwives want is very reasonable. I know all about the industrial relations mechanisms of the State. The Taoiseach does not have to keep repeating that to us as though we are morons. We are all well acquainted with and well versed in all of that. I do not accept that it is satisfactory or acceptable for him to passively sit on the sidelines while this strike is on.

I thank the Deputy. She is way over time now.

I speak on behalf of the nurses and midwives I spoke to this morning who asked me to tell the Taoiseach to engage. Deputy Varadkar is their Taoiseach and Head of Government. They are asking him to engage. If he is interested in sorting this dispute, that is what he will do, and he will do it speedily.

I do not think the Deputy is a moron.

I thank the Taoiseach.

I can assure the Deputy that I am not a moron either, but if she keeps asking me the same question, I will keep giving her the same answer. We have a mechanism under which we resolve industrial relations disputes, namely, the WRC and the Labour Court, which are State bodies and we are happy and willing to engage through that process.

We know what they are. I thank the Taoiseach.

This dispute can be resolved but, as I explained previously, it can only be resolved in a way that is affordable for taxpayers and in a way that is fair to all other public servants with whom we also have a pay deal, and in a way that is fair and beneficial to patients. If those are the parameters, there is a very strong basis for engagement.

It is important to set out again what the pay deal we have with the INMO and all the other unions says. It runs until 2020. On the Government side, we have a responsibility to honour pay rises of approximately 7% during that period, restore pay for anyone earning less than €80,000 a year, and pay annual increments and special pay rises to low paid staff and new entrants recruited after 2012 and 2013. We will honour that agreement.

The nurses are on strike.

On the other side, the unions agreed there would be no strikes and there would be no cost increasing claims.

But there is a strike.