The Government is insisting there is no prospect of further pay concessions to the State's nurses as Dail pressure on it to hold direct talks with the nursing unions on the imminent strike increases. The Dail will vote next week on a Fine Gael motion calling on the Government to open talks with the nursing unions to halt the dispute. The motion calls on the Government and nursing unions to agree a cooling-off period after the completion of the strike ballot to allow time for talks to find a solution.
However, the Government is unlikely to be in any danger of Dail defeat on the issue, as there is little prospect that the four independents who traditionally support the Government in key votes - Mr Harry Blaney, Ms Mildred Fox, Mr Tom Gildea and Mr Jackie Healy-Rae - will vote with the Opposition. Attempts to contact each of them failed yesterday.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, briefed the Cabinet on the situation yesterday, and is understood to have told Ministers that it was so far proving difficult to make satisfactory arrangements with the unions to provide emergency cover in the event of strike action. A Government spokesman repeated last night that there was no scope for additional pay concessions.
In response to reporters' questions, he said the Labour Court recommendations on pay were still on the table as a pay offer, although they had been rejected by the nurses.
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, said last night the next two weeks offered a "window of opportunity" to resolve the current impasse. "This can only happen if the Minister for Health abandons the megaphone and talks to the nursing unions. If he is unwilling or unable to do so, he should be sidelined by the Taoiseach on this issue."
Mr Shatter said there was too much talk of "taking on the nurses". He said nurses' pay should no longer be linked to that of teachers, gardai and prison officers.
"Does it make any sense that a nurse who trains for three years (soon to be extended to a four-year degree course) and whose working includes the use of sophisticated medical technology and the administration of life-saving drugs and treatments has her/his salary related to prison officers who require nine weeks' training prior to commencing prison work?
"Should new mechanisms not now be created to examine our current public pay structures? Should nurses pay not be related to that of other health care professionals?"
These were all legitimate question that must be addressed, said Mr Shatter.