As it stands, there will be a nurses’ strike, the 2nd strike in the history of the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation. The government has stuck to the line that to accept their pay claim would break the public sector pay agreement.
We all accept that pay claims and industrial disputes will happen, but the public have an expectation that the Government will do their best through negotiation and mediation to ensure that vital services are not impacted on.
So again, I call on the Government to engage with the nurses to provide the dynamic to effect positive change and make a career in nursing attractive to current and future nurses and ensure that nurses and other healthcare staff are working within institutions and within an environment that is safe, not the high risk environment that they are forced to work in every day.
