Harney To Address Angry Nurses

The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, is to address the annual conference of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) today.

The visit comes just as many delegates voted overwhelmingly to undertake industrial action at a Sligo Hospital over a dispute involving bed closures and non-renewal of contracts.

More than 96% of nurses at the hospital voted in favour of the action, and a meeting is to be held on Monday to formulate plans for a withdrawal of labour “sooner rather than later”.

The vote follows a raft of other industrial action threats by nurses over a litany of controversial measures and cutbacks by the Government.

Speaking today, INO Industrial Relations Officer, Noel Treanor said: "There is no question but that the nurses who have been released from their contracts to date are necessary and integrated frontline workers.

"To dismiss them, as the HSE have done, shows scant regard for patient care and with further plans to close wards, this crisis can only deepen."

The Labour Party's Susan O'Keeffe has spoken out in favour of the nurses saying the vote to support strike action by a majority of 97% is an indication of the depth of anger among health professionals at the cuts and embargos being imposed on the health service.

"Nursing is a caring profession, whose members have always been reluctant to take industrial action for fear of causing any additional suffering or inconvenience, so a vote of this size must cause the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to sit up and take notice.

"There is particular anger at the consequences for the health service of the public service recruitment embargo and the ban on the renewal of temporary contacts which, if implemented, could leave up to 20,000 health service posts unfilled."

Today's address by Mary Harney is being perceived as a risky move, drawing comparisons to the embarrassing 2006 address by Patricia Hewitt at the Royal College of Nursing conference. The then British health minister endured 50 minutes of catcalls, slow handclaps and derisive laughter before being forced to abandon her speech to the union.

(DW/BMcc)