From today, the crisis in our health service will deepen. This morning, 6,500 psychiatric nurses began industrial action in a dispute over unsustainable staffing levels. On Monday, a further 80,000 healthcare workers are planning to start a strict work to rule. At the core of this dispute is the pay and numbers strategy, a strategy which none of us has seen. This so-called strategy is just a recruitment embargo by another name. It has led to the introduction of severe recruitment caps, the abolition of thousands of funded posts and failure to fill maternity leave vacancies. These posts have disappeared overnight but patient need has not. Community waiting lists spiral. Infant developmental checks have been missed and radiotherapy machines lie idle. Why? Because if there is no staff, there are no services. Will the Taoiseach immediately publish the pay and numbers strategy? Will he undertake credible workforce planning and honour the previous commitment to these funded posts and provide for safe staffing levels across our health services? This crisis cannot be allowed to continue.

First I would ask that there would not be industrial action. We have 28,500 more staff working in the health system now than there were at the beginning of 2020. That is an increase of about 24% in staffing levels within the health service. I acknowledge that population growth has been significant but by any yardstick there has been consistent, huge and increased investment in our health service across the board. That is manifested in thousands more nurses and midwives, more health and social care professionals, more doctors and dentists. There will be a further increase in staff in 2025, in the thousands, in our health service. However, we also have to look and reflect to make sure we are getting value and that we are deploying and utilising all resources to the optimal degree. In the context of exponential growth in expenditure on health, the industrial action cannot be sustained, in my view.