Tens of thousands of health workers across the health service are balloting for industrial action against the pay and numbers strategy. I have raised this with the Taoiseach, the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Health repeatedly over recent weeks. Workers are feeling forced to take industrial action because the pay and numbers strategy, despite protestations by the Government that there is no recruitment embargo, is, in effect, a recruitment ceiling or embargo by another name. It is preventing hospitals from recruiting the staff they need to ensure patient safety, safe staffing levels and to prevent the workforce from being completely overrun and demoralised, which is where many thousands of health workers are at the moment and, critically, endangering patient safety.

Is this not an absolutely incredible indictment of this Government, which has failed to properly resource and staff our health service, that this now erupts into industrial action? Will it pre-empt the need of these workers to go on strike by simply scrapping the pay and numbers embargo on recruitment into our health service and ensure we have safe staffing levels right across that service?

We are nowhere near strike action. I understand that a ballot was begun by the INMO today and that FÓRSA will begin a ballot later this week. Any objective, fair analysis would acknowledge that growth in numbers of staff in our health service has never been as high, with recruitment in 2023 being the highest since the foundation of the Health Service Executive. As of August 2024, there were 27,900 more working in our health service than there were when the Government came to office. I understand there was an initial engagement on some of these matters with the WRC and the HSE remains available to engage. That would be the best way to proceed.