Fianna Fail senator shows support by visiting Galway picket lines

Fianna Fail Senator Margaret Cox has defended her decision to visit the nurses' picket lines in Galway this week, and has said she still supports the Government's position.

Senator Cox, who is also a member of Galway City Council, visited picket lines outside University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG), Merlin Park Regional and the Brothers of Charity at Woodlands. "I am sympathetic to their position, I recognise their difficulties and I know they do not wish to be where they are," Ms Cox told The Irish Times.

Asked if she thought the gesture might send the wrong signals to striking nurses, Senator Cox said that this was a matter for the nurses' strike committees to comment on.

"I am very supportive of their case, and I also believe that one of the things they are suffering from over a long number of years is the failure to recognise their value. However, I also realise that the wrongs of so many years cannot be fixed in one fell swoop," she said.

The Western Health Board said that its services in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon were "coping" yesterday but were under pressure. "We are anxious", a spokeswoman said.

It emerged yesterday that nurses' strike committees may be asked to classify young people with severe disabilities as emergency cases, following the closure of many day-care and respite facilities in the west.

Parents of children and teenagers with learning and physical disabilities are under enormous pressure this week because of the closures, according to Mr Patrick McGinley, director of services at the Brothers of Charity centre in Galway.

The Irish Nurses' Organisation's industrial relations officer for the western region, Ms Claire Treacy, said the decision to close day-care facilities had been difficult and had been taken in the knowledge that such centres were not open 365 days a year. The strike committees had asked the Brothers of Charity to inform them of any cases where parents were in a crisis in relation to respite, and such cases would be considered individually, she said.