A trade union representing 30,000 health workers has warned the Government’s proposed health insurance system will a place a “universal financial burden on families with no guarantee of universal access to healthcare”.

Trade unions representing residential staff looking after children, the elderly and others have lodged an official complaint with the European Commission over excessive working hours.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has been challenged to back up the “urban myth” that 1,500 administrators in the HSE are “surplus to requirements” in the face of claims there are actually shortages in areas of the health service.

James Reilly, the health minister, has been accused of failing to implement 18 of 20 actions on health reform which were due to be in place by April, Impact trade union has claimed.

Health unions have been given assurances by the Department of Health that the controversial graduate nursing programme is not to be extended to other health professions, including physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Direct talks between the HSE and hospital consultants on significant cost-saving reforms broke down yesterday.

Trade union Impact has warned government plans to introduce universal health insurance could become an expensive failure.

THE HSE is in such dire financial straits that it will not pay staff for expenses which are already owed to them or which will be accrued during December until next year at the earliest.

TWO of the country’s largest regional hospitals are set to be put under private sector control in a drastic attempt by the Government to fill posts and improve standards.

AS MANY as 1,000 people offered jobs in key areas of the health service, including child protection, remain without a start date because of a “pause” in recruitment which the HSE has confirmed will last to the end of the year.

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has accused hospitals of either “incompetence” or “mismanagement” after a HSE report showed they were €120 million over budget less than halfway through the year.

THE HSE is outsourcing services to avoid the recruitment embargo, but is paying more for the agency staff than if the work was carried out by its own employees, it has been claimed.

THE rushed nature of the HSE’s redundancy packages means that thousands of staff will have to be paid two weeks’ extra salary on top of their redundancy payments.

THE HSE has refused to improve the remuneration terms on offer to the thousands of staff it wants to take voluntary redundancy or early retirement before the end of the year.

UP to 900 expressions of interest in the HSE’s voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme were received in the first 24 hours, the Taoiseach told the Dáil.

UNIONS in the HSE say the redundancy- early retirement package offered to members is too little, has too short a deadline and could leave glaring gaps in the operation of health services.

TALKS on the ending of 1,000 temporary positions in the HSE West adjourned last night without agreement and with unions criticising management for giving little detail on where it intends to wield the axe.

THE day-to-day business of the Dáil and the Seanad are to be severely impacted by an escalation of industrial action by the three main civil service unions.

CIVIL rights groups have questioned the survival of the Equality Authority after five more resignations from the cash-strapped agency.

Equality Authority chief Niall Crowley’s resignation over a funding cut was a principled and courageous stance, rights groups claimed today.

IMPACT yesterday demanded the Government “stop the madness” and initiate an immediate review of the decentralisation process, which it described as “a big, white elephant eating up money faster than it can be printed”.

CONTRACT workers employed by the state must get the same salaries and pension schemes as their counterparts in full-time employment, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

SIPTU has demanded that the Government scrap its decentralisation plans and reiterated its position that its 1,600 members will not co-operate with any attempt to move them from their current locations.

KEEP your friends close, but your enemies closer — that’s Fianna Fáil’s unwritten programme for government.

The Government has failed to decentralise 8,000 civil servants, writes Stephen Rogers in Ennis.

IMPACT trade union has warned it may pull the plug on the Government’s decentralisation plans.

THE Government’s plan for decentralisation came under renewed attack yesterday as delegates at IMPACT’s biennial conference called on the plan to be scrapped.

THE Government last night denied that a decision to allow departments switch around jobs set for decentralisation was a complete U-turn on previous policy.

Decentralisation plans to transfer almost 100 probation officers from Dublin to Navan have been abandoned.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern conceded yesterday there was “no appetite” within State agencies to decentralise.

THE Labour Court is to seek advice from the European Court of Justice about issues raised in the State’s appeal against a finding that it had breached the rights of civil servants.

Ireland’s third largest worker’s union IMPACT has said decentralisation could cost taxpayers more than €65m a year.

TAXPAYERS could be forced to pay out over €65 million each year as a result of the Government’s ill-conceived decentralisation programme, according to one of the country’s leading civil service unions.

THE failure of the British and Irish governments to protect migrant workers is leading some desperate immigrants to take their own lives, the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) heard yesterday.

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Cullen has ruled out any increase in the cost of driving tests in order to fund the Government’s latest plans to tackle lengthy test waiting lists.

The Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen today announced the appointment of a new board of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

AN EMPLOYERS’ body and a union representing health and safety experts have expressed concerns at the absence of guidelines in proposed legislation forcing workers to undergo drink and drugs tests.

The Government is to create a special agency to handle driving tests.