Strikes by nurses ‘will not damage patient care’

PATIENT care will not be comprised if the 40,000- strong nurses unions decide to take industrial action in the New Year, unions say.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said balloting will begin in January with a result announced on February 1. A national pay rally in Dublin was told that industrial action would consist of lunch-hour protests, work- to-rule and withdrawal of labour.

If withdrawal of labour was necessary, there would be rolling regional action of short duration in key services starting in mid-March, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), Liam Doran, revealed.