Action would disrupt care of elderly people in homes

PUBLIC health nurses have warned they are prepared to operate a work-to-rule from the New Year unless the dispute over their current status is resolved.

At a meeting in Dublin at the weekend, they decided to defer planned industrial action for five weeks to allow the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery to respond to a request they have made for confirmation of their status.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said the nurses wanted the council set up by the Commission on Nursing to confirm their status as clinical nurse specialists, and that if this was done, there would be no industrial action.