Nurses deliver three-week ultimatum
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed yesterday’s decision by 40,000 nurses and midwives to defer a planned work-to-rule that was due to begin on Monday.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) will begin negotiations with the health employers in Government buildings at midday on Monday. More than 200 nurses and midwives staged a rally outside the Mater Hospital in Dublin yesterday, demanding a 10% pay increase, a 35-hour week and a special allowance for working in Dublin.
INO General Secretary, Liam Doran, said: “A team from the executives of both unions will begin talks with the employers at 12 o’clock on Monday. The two executives will meet two weeks later to assess if we are making any progress or not.
“We are not there to be long-fingered or to be side- tracked off the campaign. Hopefully things will be going well and if not we’ll be coming back to you and saying the campaign recommences in the week beginning April 2 and we’ll be going hard and we’ll be going fast because we will not be taking no for an answer on this occasion.”
General Secretary of the PNA Des Kavanagh, said: “We are not going to be lulled into a false sense of security and help the Government win the next election. These discussions will end on March 30. It’s a three-week engagement. If progress isn’t made, our pressure on the Government will continue.”
Minister for Health Mary Harney said her department and the Health Service Executive will engage “fully and positively” in the talks.
She said: “I am a strong supporter of empowering nurses to deliver better services for patients. We have great scope for changed work practices.”
