INO: Strike will not interfere with vaccine delivery

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) says industrial action protesting government cutbacks will not interfere with the rollout of the swine flu vaccination programme.

Thousands of people in high-risk groups have received the jab today. It'll be rolled out to the wider population in the weeks and months ahead.

Earlier the Health Minister Mary Harney appealed to health sector unions not to let their grievances with the government to get in the way of the battle against swine flu.

INO spokesman Liam Doran told 'The Lunchtime Show with Eamon Keane' on Newstalk radio that this will not happen.

"Clinics that have been scheduled will be manned and go ahead as normal" he said.

"The health services unions have collectively signed up to a protocol where, in a pandemic situation, all normal IR practices are stood down and the first and only priority is the delivery of the population health measures."