On my way to Leinster House today, I visited Cherry Orchard Hospital, where medical scientists are on strike in relation to pay and retention, among many other matters. On the way here, many of us would have seen a lot of flags around the place indicating support for front-line workers. There are two such flags in Kilmainham, which I go by everyday. I always think of that time when front-line workers protected all of us in the context of Covid-19. It is absolutely shambolic that 2,000 medical scientists are on strike for better pay and conditions when they were at the front line in the fight against Covid-19. Those workers have a justified pay claim. That pay claim needs to be dealt with.

I dealt with this on Leaders’ Questions when it was raised by Deputy Paul Murphy. As I said, there were talks yesterday at the Workplace Relations Commission. I hope that those talks will continue in order that we might get a resolution to the outstanding issues.