Nurses face threat to employment if fees go unpaid

Nurses and midwives have been warned they will not be allowed to practice if they follow the advice of their union and fail to pay their annual registration fee by January.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland says it is illegal for staff to practise if their name is removed from the register for non-payment of the fee, which increases from €100 this year to €150 for 2015.

The regulator is embroiled in a dispute with three nursing unions over the 50 per cent rise in the fee for next year.

The Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation, which is campaigning to have the fee capped at the existing level of €100, has told its members they have up to the end of May 2015 to pay it.

The board says this is incorrect and the fee is due next January 1st. The HSE has confirmed it will not be able to employ nurses and midwives without an annual retention certificate, issued on payment of the fee.

The union plans to picket the board’s headquarters in Blackrock next week for increasing the fee without consultation or consideration of financial hardship. It has called on members not to pay the fee “at this time”.

The board says the decision to increase the fee was taken "after a democratic vote and much debate". It says Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has made it clear it must be self-funding.