Ministers: Nurses’ pay deal won’t result in cuts

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith and Aoife Moore

The Government is seeking to downplay fears that surging nurses’ pay deal costs could force the health service to seek extra funds or cut back services. , insisting money is available to operate the system.

Simon Harris, the health minister, and Paschal Donohoe, the finance minister, rejected the growing concerns after it emerged the nurses’ pay deal will now cost €39m this year.

new HSE structural reforms and union fears a “recruitment ban” is putting patients’ lives at risk.

At this morning’s weekly cabinet meeting, ministers are expected to discuss reports the pay deal struck with nurses earlier this year is now likely to cost €39m in 2019 instead of the predicted €10m to €15m.

In addition, Mr Donohoe isalso likely to discuss a special mid-year review of expenditure which could see fresh calls for extra money to be given to health this year.

The discussions will come during a meeting where Mr Harris is also expected to bring forward long-flagged proposals to scrap the existing HSE structures and replace them with a system similar to the pre-HSE health boards — which could see the need for voluntary redundancy measures to be introduced.

However, despite the concerns, both Mr Donohoe and Mr Harris sought to downplay fears of the costs involved, telling reporters at separate events yesterday the issues can be resolved.

“€39m is the gross cost as is my understanding,” said Mr Harris when asked about the reported nurses’ pay deal costs.

“The deal with the nurses is based on overall savings, so I think the two figures [€15m and €39m] do tally.

“The enhanced nursing contract will also allow some of them to benefit from the allowances in the Labour court, and I’m very hopeful those circulars [giving effect to the deal] can be agreed this week,” he said.

Asked at a separate event yesterday about the wider concerns of budget overruns again this year in the health service, Mr Donohoe added:

“I spent most of the morning with Minister Harris in relation to the health issue. I’ve been meeting with Mr Harris since the start of this year on how we manage our health spending.

“There’s nothing at all inevitable about the health service needing a large supplementary estimate for this year.

And I’m absolutely determined the expenditure for 2019 is in a far better place than in the second half of last year. We have had ongoing engagement with the health service about this, and plan to make progress across September and October.

The comments came as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation warned patients are facing serious risks, delays and service cuts due to a recruitment ban.

In a statement last night, the union said it has sent an initial list of vacant nursing and midwifery positions to the HSE, which are not being filled due to an embargo on hiring.

The recruitment and overtime embargo, due to last three months, was first announced in a letter from the deputy director general and chief operations officer of the HSE and circulated across health services in April.

At the time, those involved said the move was due to: “Financial pressure in the system arising from the high levels of recruitment in 2018 and the consequential impact in 2019.”