There are a lot of Senators indicating so I ask all Members to be cognisant of the fact that we had a delayed Order of Business and that they please stick to the time of two minutes.

I will respond to some of the issues raised already around the strike. It is important to outline that pay has been restored to that group earning under €30,000 income-----

This is not about pay restoration-----

With all due respect-----

This is not about pay restoration. This is the spin we get. It is not about pay restoration. It is about independent job evaluation-----

The Senator should show some respect to the Chamber and to the-----

This is wrong-----

-----to the Chairman.

This is the truth.

The Senator is only delaying-----

The Senator should show some respect to the health service workers-----

The Senator should show some respect to the Chamber and to the Chairman when he is speaking-----

I ask Senator Conway to stay out of the argument.

The position I am quite clearly stating is that people earning under €30,000 have had their pay restored and it is now 4% above the 2009 pay level. That has not occurred in other sectors of the HSE. This is the first point.

My second point is that an additional 13,000 whole-time equivalent, WTE, staff were taken on in the HSE in the last four years in order to assist and make sure we can continue to deliver the same level of care or an increased level of care. There are now 135,000 people working in the HSE. There were 103,000 WTE workers and that has now gone up to 116,000 whole-time equivalent staff in four years, which is a huge pay cost of some €600 million per annum of additional cost. With regard to the situation we are discussing, yes an evaluation was carried out and yes it needs to be implemented, and the Government is quite clearly saying it will start to implement it from November. There are other issues that need to be resolved and the Government is quite prepared to go back into conciliation on those issues and has made its position quite clear. Let us not go back to the period between 2000 and 2008 when public sector pay went from €8 billion per annum to €16 billion per annum and then-----

Why did the Government agree to a job evaluation process?

If Senator Nash does not want to hear the truth that is fine-----

This is the truth.

That is fine with me. I will not be bullied by Senator Nash-----

This is spin from-----

I will not be bullied by Senator Nash-----

It is misleading of the Government to renege on a deal-----

Senators-----

The Government will not hear the uncomfortable truth and Fine Gael will not want to accept it.

I ask Senator Nash to please resume his seat-----

They do not give a toss about the lower paid workers-----

Senator Nash will please resume his seat-----

-----be it Defence Forces members or school secretaries or anybody else who has increased their work-----

The Senator has put me over my limit-----

I gave my colleagues free rein and I did not interrupt them. The Government has increased the health budget by quite a substantial amount over the past years. We need to ensure we can develop a healthcare sector-----

It is-----

The Senator has made his point.

-----and develop the sector in a cost-effective way. We are doing that.