It is great to see Senator Brady in the role of Acting Leader. I wish him the very best of luck with it.

I also pass on my condolences to the family of Seamus Carroll and all his friends here. It is very sad news. Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam.

I want to speak in solidarity with the 100,000 public sector workers who are on a work to rule today. Many employees in this House will be affected by this. There are 19 unions involved, including the largest unions in the country, namely, SIPTU, Fórsa, Unite, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO. Right across the country, people will be affected by this, but they are affected because these workers have not been given the demands they looked for. We all rely so much on the public service of this country. Nobody wants to do this. Safe staffing is a huge issue, and they cannot keep working under the current staffing rules. There has been overwhelming support from all the union members that there will be industrial action on 14 October. The Minister, Jack Chambers, seems to lack the understanding that pay and living standards must be protected and that public sector pay has fallen by as much as 5% as inflation has grown. This is disproportionately affecting newer people in the sector who are just starting off on their careers. We can see the fallout of this because of the high cost of living. People cannot afford to live. We see this particularly in bigger cities like Dublin. There are people coming out of the public sector. They have trained in the public sector. They have chosen the career path of working in the public sector, including the Civil Service, yet they just cannot afford to live.

I urge the Minister, Jack Chambers, to engage, to actually listen and to put pay at the start of talks, not say it will happen at the end. He seems to be digging in his heels. Inflation grows and wages need to grow. The work to rule starts today, and I am in full solidarity with the workers because they do not want to do this. We all know in our own working lives and in our own families how much we rely on the public sector, including the Civil Service. Nobody wants to go on strike, and that needs to keep being reiterated. It is not too late for the Minister to intervene, to actually listen to what the unions are looking for in the first place and to give them the respect they need. Their public sector deal ended on 30 June and there has been no consideration of getting this back again the way it should have been.