Nurses and employers back in talks

Nurses' representatives and the HSE re-entered talks this afternoon at the National Implementation Body.

They are discussing the five-week long nurses' dispute over pay and working conditions.

The INO and the PNA have now presented the reforms they are offering in exchange for their demands - including a proposal to cut A&E waiting times by an average of four hours.

Brendan Mulligan of the HSE said it already expected nurses to perform many of the proposed duties.

"Certainly a lot of what's contained in the INO and PNA's proposals, we would expect nurses to be doing anyway.

"Indeed there are responsibilities they would have paid for down through the years through successive social partnership agreements, but I don't see how they contribute to actually reducing the working hours of nurses and midwives."