My question is directed to the Minister for Health. I raise the health support workers strike planned for tomorrow from a different angle. What contingencies have been put in place in the event that the strike goes ahead? We hear about the fantastic work these health workers do on a daily basis. They are the cogs that turn the wheels in the HSE day in and day out. Understandably, elective surgeries will be cancelled tomorrow. In regard to inpatients, in particular older and vulnerable patients who depend on these services for basic tasks such as feeding themselves, will families be contacted and asked to step into the breach in the short term? I ask the Taoiseach to outline what contingencies have been put in place in the event that the strike goes ahead tomorrow.

On the same issue, it is important that the Government honours its commitment. Ten thousand health support workers are planning to strike tomorrow across 38 hospitals, including Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. The Government has made a commitment. This matter comes under the framework of the public sector. These people do not want to go on strike but the promises made to them in 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been broken. All of the references on the airwaves in regard to this issue are that this is a matter for the Labour Court. There are sick people in our hospitals who have been on waiting lists for services for months or years. This matter can be resolved with the stroke of a pen. I call on the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health to work together to resolve it today because the last thing we need is strike action that will affect vulnerable people.

I thank Deputies Mary Butler and Peter Fitzpatrick for their questions on this matter. My colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has already dealt with the issue from an industrial relations point of view. I hope progress can be made on that today. From a contingency planning point of view, which I think is at the core of the Deputies' questions, the HSE and SIPTU at a local level are putting contingency plans in place.

This varies from hospital to hospital and site to site, depending on the local arrangements and staffing arrangements of those hospitals. The HSE has indicated that if the industrial action goes ahead, which I hope it does not since I believe it can be averted, it will result in some elective procedures being cancelled, mainly in the area of scopes. The priority today while contingency planning is going on at a local level is that everybody is working very hard to see if these matters can be averted.