The truth hurts. The truth and hurt this afternoon are that 10,000 support staff in the health service are on strike at 38 hospitals and facilities across the State. They are engaged in industrial action because of the failures of the Government. This is a mess entirely of its making and that truth, I hope, rings home at some level with the Taoiseach.

I took the opportunity this morning to speak with workers at Beaumont, the Mater and the Rotunda hospitals. I spoke with them to extend the solidarity of Sinn Féin and the considerable public support they enjoy for their just cause. I hope this is the only morning I will have to do the rounds of hospitals, and that staff are forced onto the picket line.

The strike has been a long time coming. The Taoiseach has known since 2015, when the job evaluation scheme was resumed and agreed, that there was a need to pay workers fairly and that this liability was going to arise at some stage, yet he made precisely no effort and no plan was put in place to pay the staff involved what they are due. The Taoiseach should know that none of the workers wants to be out on strike. The people to whom I spoke are healthcare assistants, maternity care assistants, porters, catering staff and chefs. They want to do what they do best; they want to be at work, caring for and supporting patients. They are upset and offended because they believe their work is being disrespected and that somehow the Government regards them as menial staff, carrying out menial and unimportant roles. It is important to say that the health service simply cannot function without these workers, and patients cannot be cared for in the way they must be.

They feel they have been let down and believe that their work is undervalued. They are correct in that analysis. The job evaluation scheme also chimes with their analysis because it found that workers are being underpaid for the skills level they bring to their jobs and for the duties they carry out. Dr. Paud O'Regan, a consultant at South Tipperary General Hospital, said this morning that the industrial action is having a major and almost catastrophic effect on services. I can only imagine what the consequences will be for workers and patients if the Government drives this dispute to further industrial action next week. Despite the Taoiseach's effort to portray workers and their union as unreasonable, that is not the case. It should be borne in mind that the HSE accepted the finding of the job evaluation and requested the money necessary to pay these workers what they deserve but the Government has refused to live up to its side of the bargain. The Taoiseach has broken his word and now we have a messy and unnecessary strike.

The workers trusted in the process but the Taoiseach has done nothing. He made a derisory, non-offer to the workers last week which was, of course, rejected and here we are. I ask the Taoiseach to act now, keep his word and end this messy and unnecessary industrial action by simply sticking to those things that he has agreed.

I fully understand, appreciate and know the important role that support staff in our health service play in allowing it function. I do not know that because I visited the pickets for a photo opportunity; I know that because I worked in our public health service for four or five years and witnessed that every single day.

The Taoiseach should pay the staff.

The Taoiseach will be going back to work in the health service if he is not careful.

Those who are hurting the most are the patients, service users and their families, not anyone here. The Government wants the strike resolved and it can be resolved. All strikes ultimately are resolved. It is our view that this strike did not have to happen. The option of going to the Labour Court still stands.

The option of paying them still stands.

The Government is willing to accept a binding determination by the Labour Court. The nursing dispute was resolved there, as was the Garda dispute and any number of transport disputes. I again respectfully ask the union to accept a binding determination from the Labour Court and not to refuse to go there.

The workers who are out on strike today do not believe that the Taoiseach fully appreciates or even acknowledges the important work they carry out. It might do him no harm to visit a picket line; it might not do him any harm at all to talk to people and hear what they have to say. If he did, they would tell him that they feel very let down. These are low-paid workers and caterers and porters can be contrasted with members of the Judiciary and the lot of judges in Irish society and the regard in which they are held. These workers are wounded by this and believe the Taoiseach has let them down.

They have made clear that patients are still being cared for in our hospitals, as I am sure the Taoiseach knows, and that catering workers, healthcare assistants and others are making sure that is the case. Of course, this unnecessary dispute is having an effect on patients. If he really cares about patients and values the workers, the Taoiseach will move to resolve the dispute.

I thank the Deputy. Her time is up now.

There is no need for the Labour Court. This is a ball of smoke - an absolute diversion by the Taoiseach. It is utterly disingenuous. There is no matter of dispute here, save that the Government will not keep its word.

The Deputy is way over time.

The Government will not pay what is due to these workers on the back of a job evaluation scheme that was agreed between the parties.

The time limits are agreed here.

Let us not play games. The only thing the Taoiseach is doing by offering up the diversion of the Labour Court is prolonging the strike.

Deputy McDonald is one minute over time.

Please.

The Taoiseach is prolonging a messy strike that is of his making because he has broken his word. For as long as he refuses to honour his agreements-----

Will the Deputy please resume her seat?

-----we will have industrial action. I appeal to the Taoiseach to be reasonable.

Will the Deputy be reasonable and resume her seat?

I ask the Taoiseach to be responsible and act now to keep his word and end this dispute.

Sometimes I wonder if those on my benches are too respectful and polite. I am usually shouted down within 20 seconds of getting on my feet.

Hear, hear.

It is the norm for the leaders of Opposition parties to go minutes over time and nobody interrupts them or even asks them to respect Standing Orders or to respect other Members of this House.

Wake up, guys.

Perhaps the Taoiseach will answer the question now.

It is disappointing.

Regarding the Deputy's question, to the extent that there was one, I have no doubt that those on strike appreciate the Deputy's support and solidarity. She supports every cause, every week, and then moves onto the next one.

We do not support the cause of judges' pay.

They might not appreciate her attempt to appoint herself as their spokesperson. Their union, not the Sinn Féin Party, speaks for them. We should all be very clear about this.

The Government's policy on pay restoration across the public service is very fair. It is to start restoring pay for the lowest paid and then to move on to those on middle incomes and then the highest paid. Pay restoration is now complete for those on the lowest pay and will be complete for those earning up to €70,000 by the end of next year. It will not be complete for high paid individuals like judges until 2022 or 2023. The Deputy's comparison is not fair.

The Taoiseach speaks about respect in the Dáil in order to divert attention from the blatant lack of respect shown by the Government for low paid and overworked health service workers. He speaks about photo opportunities in order to divert attention from the real experiences of those who were on the picket line this morning. I spoke to some of them and witnessed their righteous anger and frustration at the Government's approach to their dispute. On the picket line in Tallaght this morning Michelle told me about the job she did as a healthcare assistant and how different it was from the job she had started in 18 years ago. She said they now had so many responsibilities and that they did practically everything apart from giving medication. Why is that? It did not just happen by accident. It is because they are the fillers for the cracks in a health service that has suffered from chronic under-investment for decades under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Ian is a porter at Tallaght hospital where he has been from the very day it opened. He has been a porter since 1996. He told me that his dad was a porter and able to afford to raise a family and buy a house on the wage a porter then earned. In contrast, he is on the top tier of porter wages, gross pay of €33,000. He survives only by working 12-hour overtime shifts at the weekend. He is facing eviction from his apartment in Exchange Hall.

The story of being underpaid and overworked is very common across the health service. These are the workers who many people do not think of first when they think of those on the front line in the health service, but clearly they are essential to anything that happens. They include chefs, catering assistants, porters, healthcare assistants, technicians, laboratory assistants and so on. They are being treated disgracefully by the Government because it refuses to pay them what they are owed. The restarting of the job evaluation scheme was included in the Public Service Stability Agreement in order to get the agreement passed. The fact that the Government is trying to shirk its responsibilities under the agreement underlines how partnership was and is a process designed to bind the hands of workers and keep improvements in wages and conditions to a minimum.

All of the talk about going to the Labour Court is an absolute diversion, as the workers are well aware. The Government accepts the finding of the 2017 evaluation and that the workers are not being paid what they deserve, yet it refuses to pay them. The cost of paying them is approximately €16 million and the workers are not slow in pointing out that the Government has overseen the cost of the national children's hospital more than double to €1.7 billion and the national broadband plan treble from €1 billion to €3 billion. As there is no problem in paying any of them, what is the difference? Is it because the workers are seeking millions of euro rather than billions of euro? Should they slap on an extra zero at the end in order that the Government could find the money? Is it more likely that the reason is private companies will make a killing from those projects and that those who are on strike today are mere workers. They are low paid workers, not like the high paid judges, to whom the Government can agree to pay an increase. The workers in question get up very early in the morning and work to ensure the hospitals the Government has underfunded work as well as possible. The Government must commit to paying them today and stop trying to delay and draw out matters.

I thank the Deputy. Again, in the absence of a question, all I can do really is restate what I said, that the Government wants the strike to be resolved. It was not necessary and the offer made was appropriate. If it was considered that it was not appropriate then the right place to resolve the dispute was the Labour Court. We are willing to accept a binding determination from the Labour Court which is independent and the place where many other disputes have been resolved. I suspect this dispute will be resolved there also.

The dispute is about the timing and phasing in of a third pay increase for the support staff concerned. Pay restoration is under way and complete for the vast majority of these staff. Annual increments are being paid, after they had been stopped for a period. There have also been special pay increases for recent entrants to allow them to catch up with the salary scales of persons recruited before the financial crisis. As part of the public sector pay agreement, there is a 2.75% pay rise to be paid to all staff, the next part of which will be paid in September. The Government has offered to begin implementing the further pay rise on top of the other pay rises from November. That is an appropriate offer. If it cannot be accepted, the matter could be resolved in the Labour Court where we are willing to accept a binding determination.

I will pose some very clear questions to the Taoiseach in order that there will be no mistaking them. I will set out the logic of the workers, which is foolproof. Does the Taoiseach accept the outcome of the job evaluation? If he does, I presume he also accepts that the workers are being underpaid for the work they do. If he accepts that the workers are being underpaid for the work they do, why does the Government not simply agree to pay them? Why insist on delaying things by going to the Labour Court, or at least talking about going to the Labour Court? Why not simply pay the workers? How can the Government find the money to pay judges but not these low paid workers? How can it find the money to pay for the national broadband plan but not these hard-working low paid workers? How can it find the money to fund the national children's hospital hospital?

I congratulate the workers on taking strike action because it is clear that without it, the Government would just continue to delay and drag its feet. The strike action can force the Government to pay the workers what they are owed. The nurses would have won more concessions if they had not cancelled their three-day strike action. There is a lesson for the support workers looking to next week. Unless there is a clear commitment from the Government to pay what is owed, they should go ahead with their action next week, demonstrate their power once more and force the Government to pay up.

The answer to the Deputy's first question is "Yes". The answer to the other questions is that the dispute is about timing and the implementation of the additional pay rises. It must be done broadly within budget and we must bear in mind the consequent costs. The Deputy has drawn equivalence with judges, for example, but that is a red herring. I have already explained that public sector pay is being restored for the lowest paid first and that has been done. The restoration will be extended to those on middle incomes earning up to €70,000 by the end of next year. For those who are high paid, like judges, the process is only starting and will not be completed until 2022 or 2023.

The Deputy's attempt to create equivalence with the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan is also deeply misleading. As the public sector pay bill is €19 billion per year, we can think of how many children's hospitals or broadband plans could be paid for with that money. We are spending multiples of the amounts set for the national broadband plan and the national children's hospital every year on public sector pay. The increase in public sector pay this year alone amounts to €400 million, which is multiples of the additional money we may need to find for the national children's hospital or the national broadband plan. The creating of equivalence is bogus and misleading.

The amount in question is €16 million.