-----that is on the Taoiseach and the "I don't know what's going on" Minister, Deputy Patrick Donovan-----

-----who apparently shrugged his shoulders and did a Manuel on it. He knows nothing apparently. He needs to start finding out.

It sounds like you want to run RTÉ, not Matt Carthy.

Our ambulance workers should not have to strike to be heard by the Taoiseach. They should not have to stand on a picket line to fight for fair pay, recognition and basic respect, but that is what they were forced to do yesterday. They were left with no other option because the Government has failed to deliver improved pay for the incredible work, vital skills and life-saving expertise they bring to work every single day. Paramedics were asked to step up and to take on advanced training to modernise the ambulance se…

Exactly.

Yes, it is.

The Taoiseach's response reflects his lack of urgency on this question. He is quite happy to simply take a laissez-faire approach and hope that others will sort this out. He knows that for the past six years, throughout this process of modernisation, ambulance workers have been left understaffed to the point that they have very deep safety concerns. Those concerns are well-grounded. He has left them overworked. So many of them are burned out that there is now an issue around recruitment and retention in that very s…

I urge the Taoiseach again to stop being a spectator-----

----- to intervene and assist in a resolution on this matter.

Jesus, do not. They are completely understaffed.

So there is not a problem.

The October budget, which was worth €9.4 billion, left disabled people €1,400 worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. For months, disabled people and their advocates have told their stories of choices between heating and eating. They have appealed to the Government again and again to deliver a cost-of-disability payment immediately, but it has ignored them. The Government’s consultation process is a distraction. It has stated that it needs to figure out what a cost-of-disability payment should be. Howev…

No, I have not.

Today, front-line emergency workers are on strike. Paramedics, advanced paramedics, specialist paramedics, emergency medical technicians, EMTs, and supervisors are all on strike. People who save lives are on the picket line. They stand there as a result of the Government's refusal to resolve long-standing issues relating to pay and conditions and staffing. Ambulance workers do not want to be on strike; they want to be at work helping people and saving lives. The Government, however, forces them to fight for respect…

There is the problem in a nutshell. The Government is blind to the expertise and skill of those who save lives every day. It asks ambulance workers to upskill and then refuses to pay for the upskilling properly. Is iad Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael atá freagrach do staid na seirbhíse otharchairr inniu. Is teip ghlan é nár chuir siad pá cóir ar fáil d'oibrithe. D'fhág siad iad gan aon rogha. Ní féidir leanúint mar sin. Caithfidh an Rialtas idirghabháil a dhéanamh chun teacht ar réiteach láithreach. The Government's ina…

Because you have.

I am sorry a Cheann Comhairle but the question was put to me.

If everything is so hunky-dory, why are they on strike? Is the Taoiseach trying to suggest that the ambulance workers are wrong? Is he trying to suggest they are imagining the circumstances they are in? Here is the core dishonesty in the Taoiseach's reply. This situation has dragged on for six years and the Government has demonstrated an absence of good faith and respect. It asked the paramedics to step up. It asked them to upskill, to retrain and to take on greater responsibilities. They have done all of that. The…

The Government has on three occasions taken a confrontational approach to workers-----

-----namely with the SNAs, the agricultural contractors and farmers.