Nurses brand pay ruling unacceptable

THE country’s 25,000 staff nurses and midwives have come away empty-handed from the benchmarking process, prompting a furious reaction from unions.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has called on the Government to provide an alternative to benchmarking to process their claim for parity with therapeutic grades.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said they did not want conflict, but they could not accept the benchmarking body’s refusal to handle their claim on the grounds it was outside its terms of reference.