A third of nurses pay full €150 registration fee
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) had urged its members to pay only last year’s €100 fee.
However, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) has found just one in every 14 nurses and midwives have paid €100.
The board has asked for a meeting with Health Minister Leo Varadkar, who has intervened in the registration fee dispute.
The NMBI has been criticised over a 50% increase in the registration fee for 2015 but insists it has no choice.
INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the board had not acted on the minister’s request to re-engage in talks with staff associations. He said this time last year 80% of nurses and midwives had paid their registration fee. “The campaign is working, particularly in the public sector.”
The board threatened nurses if they did not pay by January 1 they would not be able to work on January 2.
Mr Doran said CORU, the regulator for health and social care professionals, was starting its fitness-to-practice regime against a backdrop of the €100 fee being in place.
