Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2022-05-19
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

I thank Deputy Bacik. I acknowledge that medical scientists are essential to the health service. Patients and members of the public often do not see what they do because they work in laboratories rather than in patient-facing areas. As a medical doctor, I know what they do and I know how important they are to the health service. I would certainly like to see this dispute resolved.
My Department, as the Deputy will be aware, has two offices under its remit, the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Labour Court. We stand ready to assist in resolving this dispute, if we can. The public service agreement group, which is made up of union and Civil Service representatives with an independent chair, met on 11 May to consider this matter. It recommended that the matter should be referred to the WRC and that industrial peace be maintained in the meantime. While the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association has agreed to engage at the WRC, it has not agreed to lift its strike action, which is unfortunate. As I say, the WRC is ready to intervene and wants to intervene but we would like normal patient services resumed in the meantime.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-05-19