The Minister for Finance has warned that the ongoing nurse’s strikes can only be solved in the Labour Court.
Some 35,000 nurses will again take to the picket lines tomorrow – with further strikes to take place this Thursday February 7th.
More strike days are then planned for February 12th,13th,14th,19th and 21st.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe again warned that nurses can’t be offered a special deal outside of the public service pay agreement.
“I have no doubt at all, particularly given the extraordinary work that our nurses do, that many believe they do deserve to be paid more,” he said.
“The challenge I have as Minister for Finance is that I have responsibility for a public sector wage bill overall of approximately €18bn,” he said.
“There will be many, many public servants listening – who are not nurses – who I am sure will feel that they deserve to be paid more.
“Then we have tax payers out there who need to pay for all of this and also depend on our ability to pay for better public services in the future.”
Hospital crisis
Nurses are in dispute with the Government over pay and working conditions – which they say are making it impossible for the HSE to recruit and retain enough nurses to safely run Irish hospitals.
Minister Donohoe said the Public Service Pay Agreement includes a mechanism for dealing with the issue of new entrants pay – which he said is “worth an additional €3,000 per year to anybody who will benefit from it.”
He also noted that the HSE has been capable of recruiting an extra 3,876 nurses in recent years on the current pay scale.
“Once you take into account all of the provisions and additional payments for overtime and tough work that our nurse do, we have an average starting salary after a number of months of €37,000,” he said.
Public service pay
He said changes to Garda income in 2016 led to a flood of other public servants demanding the same treatment and warned that offering a special deal now could lead to a wider industrial action across the public service.
He said the dispute will be resolved through the Labour Court.
“The initial discussions and negotiations in this were convened there last week,” he said.
“The Labour Court is, as I said in the context of the Gardaí, the decision-making forum of last resort.”
He said the Government would have to “consider very seriously” any recommendation made by the Labour Court.
