‘Too busy’ Harney gets conference snub from nurses’ union
The minister’s refusal meant she was not invited to address SIPTU’s nursing convention in Wexford last night, delegates heard.
It was the first time a health minister was not invited to the convention’s opening night.
“It seems to me that if as much effort was put into listening to qualified professionals working on the frontline, as there was put into spinning bad news stories, then phrases like national emergency might not be used about the Irish health service,” said the union’s national nursing official, Louise O’Reilly.
“Nurses and midwives are there on the frontline delivering care to the most vulnerable in our society and so they should be the ones that this minister should be talking to when she uses phrases like ‘reform’. Who better than frontline workers to advise her? It may be that this minister needs to hear some hard truths and it just might be that this government needs to stop hiding behind the spin and start talking meaningfully to those who are best placed to advise them,” said Ms O’Reilly.
It was not true, she insisted, to say that nurses and midwives are unwilling to change and to develop the health service.
“We are the ones calling for change; we are the ones lobbying for development. As we move towards the end of the pay phase of the national wage agreement Towards 2016 — and in light of the recent report from the Public Sector Benchmarking Body — it is essential we act in union with our brothers and sisters in congress to advance the cause of the members of this union.”
Approximately 200 nurses are attending the conference which is examining the role of nursing in the delivery of public health care and the level of investment in the services.
Meanwhile, the Government has announced the make up of the interim advisory board to the National Employment Rights Authority.
The board will be chaired by ex-Fianna Fáil TD John Dennehy, along with Patricia King of SIPTU, Linda Tanham of Mandate and Owen Wills of TEEU.
Mary Cryan, of the Brown Thomas group, John Flanagan from EBS and Eddie Keenan of the Construction Industry Federation will be the employers’ representatives.
