The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is to commence a ballot for industrial action of its members in the coronary care unit of Cork University Hospital. These front-line workers have been forced to work with unsafe staffing levels for far too long. They have also been forced to work with an inappropriate skills mix in their team. If these workers decide to take industrial action, I believe they deserve the support of the Cork public and all who want to see a better health service in this country. Although any potential dispute is a dispute with their direct employer, it is clear this is a national issue. Only last week, for example, a similar ballot commenced at University Hospital Limerick.

The issue of resources for safe staffing in our hospitals is a national issue, a Government issue. What changes does the Taoiseach intend to make on this front?

A number of people and different groups in the health service are currently balloting with regard to safe staffing levels. We acknowledge there are many parts of the health service in which staffing is too low. We are happy to engage with unions and representatives on how we can resolve that but we need to put it into a wider context, which is the fact that we are hiring more healthcare staff than ever before, with 6,000 additional doctors, nurses, midwives and dentists hired in the past two or three years. We are increasing staffing levels. Notwithstanding the challenge faced across the world in recruiting and retaining health staff, we have been able to increase the size of our health workforce in the past couple of years and that is a significant achievement. We have among the highest numbers of nurses per head in the developed world now. It is very important, however, that we ensure they are in the right places.