On my behalf and on behalf of Sinn Féin, I offer our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of Brendan Grace and Noel Whelan, two men who are gone far too soon. Both of them made not inconsiderable contributions to public life.

The members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, have begun an overtime ban. This is happening because of the lack of progress in talks to address the recruitment and retention crisis that is crippling the mental health services. If the service was adequately staffed, an overtime ban would have no impact. It is precisely because of the staffing levels that an overtime ban will have the impact it will. This is the same recruitment and retention crisis that forced nurses and midwives across the State to take to the picket line earlier this year. While members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, concluded a deal with the Government after their strike action, no agreement was reached with the PNA.

For over five months, the PNA and psychiatric nurses have been working really hard to try to de-escalate this situation but little progress if any has been made. All the while its members have been propping up the service using overtime. There is no obligation for them to do this overtime, but as a gesture of goodwill they have been leaving their families and not being at home when they should be in order to work extra hours just to keep the services going.

I am sure the Tánaiste will accept that nurses have shown extraordinary patience as they continue to struggle with staff shortages. In some areas of the service, these shortages amount to a reduction of 20% in nursing staff and there are 700 vacancies nationally. That is not sustainable in a vital area of our health service where demand is growing all the time. This was flagged by the PNA last year in the wake of the resignation of three psychiatrists in the south east due to unacceptable working conditions. The general secretary of the PNA said that shortages were expected to exacerbate significantly. To make matters worse the HSE is adding to the problems by maintaining an effective embargo on recruitment and by not offering permanent posts to graduate nurses this year, something that had been done in previous years but that practice appears to have stopped. At a time of crisis this embargo must end.

There is a premium for overtime: it is more expensive than regular hours. Nurses take their duty of care very seriously. They do not want to be engaged in this overtime ban. They want to do their job of caring for patients. That is what they do best and train hard for. Our psychiatric nurses need adequate staffing levels to protect their patients and themselves. They have been more than patient and the Government has relied on their goodwill for far too long. If the recruitment and retention crisis in mental health is to be addressed and the goodwill of psychiatric nurses restored, it requires a clear demonstration of urgency and commitment from the HSE. I call on the Minister for Health to act with urgency to address this situation. What actions will the Government pursue to ensure this dispute is resolved?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which is a concern. The Psychiatric Nurses Association members have withdrawn their availability for overtime from 7 a.m. this morning for an indefinite period. The PNA has indicated this will not affect child and adolescent mental health services. The HSE has stated that this course of action will have a significant impact on the delivery of mental health services generally. It is assessing the situation on a service-by-service basis. The HSE will make every effort to minimise the impact of this course of action.

For obvious reasons, this decision is very disappointing given that the PNA and health service management are still engaged in conciliation under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. It is important to note that the dispute with the PNA was referred by the Labour Court to the WRC some time ago. Progress has been made in some areas since this engagement started, but obviously agreement has yet to be reached in remaining areas.

I appreciate that there is a degree of frustration on the part of the PNA at what it has seen as very slow progress. I urge the PNA to reconsider this decision to withdraw the availability of overtime and to continue to engage fully with the industrial relations machinery of the State to resolve the remaining issues in this dispute. I am informed that genuine progress is being made although it has been slow. I emphasise that the services are reliant on overtime as the Deputy knows well, understanding the sector as she does. The consequence of this decision is potentially significant for patients.

The HSE, supported by Government, wants to see the outstanding issues resolved as soon as possible. As the Deputy knows that can only be done through the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the consultations that are taking place. There will not be a separate intervention. I encourage the PNA to engage to seek to resolve issues and management will do the same. The decision to withdraw overtime will have significant consequences that those who work in and understand the sector best, as psychiatric nurses do, want to try to avoid. It is a serious development today. I think some were surprised at the decision to go ahead with it but it is a reminder that the outstanding issues need to conclude. I encourage the PNA to think again about the continuation of an industrial action which will have a significant impact on the support for many of the patients they work with daily.

The Tánaiste's response will do absolutely nothing to encourage psychiatric nurses to undertake overtime. It is not the first time they have done this and it should not come as a surprise. I was on my tools the last time they did it in 2007. It did have a devastating impact but it did bring the parties to the table and it brought a resolution. The Tánaiste did not address the issue of the recruitment embargo. We need to get to the heart of this because people on the ground know that there is a recruitment embargo in place. They see its impact every day of the week. If there was no recruitment embargo in place and if the Government had cracked the recruitment and retention crisis they could be involved in an overtime ban every day of the week and it would have no impact. It is having a devastating impact purely and simply because the service is effectively being run by overtime, agency and locum. That is no way to run our mental health services. It is no way to plan for future mental health services.

The Tánaiste did a very good job of describing the situation and said very little about what he and the Government are going to do about it. This is a very serious issue. It requires commitment. They have been five months at the WRC. If progress was being made, believe me, they would be back in work, doing overtime. They have no faith that progress is being made. What is the Government going to do about it?

In response to the first question there is no recruitment embargo. There is recruitment within the parameters of the budgets that have been agreed.

There is no recruitment.

There is recruitment taking place across the HSE. The Deputies know that.

Management.

It is not just management. There are areas where there are staffing pressures of course. The Deputies cannot ignore the availability of financial resources when recruiting. There are targeted recruitment campaigns happening particularly in areas where there is most pressure but they have to happen within the budgets that have been allocated. Otherwise money that is not there will be committed to for extra staffing, as has happened in previous years.

The Government trains graduates but does not offer them jobs so they are going to leave.

Virtually all sectors in the HSE are seeing increased staffing. It does have to be cognisant of the available resources. People know that.

Why is the Government spending so much on the children's hospital if it there is not enough money there?

It is not helpful to go into the individual issues under discussion at the WRC to resolve outstanding issues. My understanding is that management is absolutely committed to bringing to a conclusion the issues that have been discussed for quite a long time, I accept that. I understand the frustration of the PNA but I also ask them to consider the impact of their decision on overtime and to focus on the industrial relations machinery that can resolve this issue.