I have just come from the picket line on Davitt Road, where National Ambulance Service workers are on strike for 24 hours because the HSE has failed for six years to implement a 5% pay rise that they are due under benchmarking. It is not just the HSE, though. The Government is their employer. They are public sector workers and they are calling for the Taoiseach's intervention. The HSE has accepted upskilling and increased responsibilities for ambulance workers, so why is it a conscious policy to not reward essential workers, whom we absolutely need for front-line services? The stress, the burnout and the tragedy that these workers see and deal with daily is horrific. Why has the HSE not been engaging with them? Will the Taoiseach call for that? Will the Taoiseach directly intervene? These workers do not want to be on strike. The last thing that they want to be doing is not providing an essential service. The last time they-----

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-----refused a pay rise it was because it was a deterioration in the service.

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