Nurses threaten strike over pay

NURSES at hospitals around the country have threatened to go on strike in a dispute over on-call pay rates and staffing levels.

All-night on-call pay rates at many of the country's top hospitals wouldn't even finance a childminder for a couple of hours, nurses say. And numerous audits have shown that more and more hospitals are under-staffed.

Yet little is happening to improve the lot of nurses and support is brewing for a series of one-day stoppages in hospitals around the country, says the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).