NURSES AND midwives have been made scapegoats for bankers and property speculators and the Government parties would do well to remember this when they went looking for votes in June, the annual conference of Siptu nurses was told last evening.
The union’s national nursing official Louise O’Reilly also told delegates attending the conference in Sligo that the jobs of thousands of temporary workers in the health service, many of them nurses, were now under threat as a result of cutbacks and many others were having their pay cut as a result of Government imposed levies.
Many nurses on temporary contacts were facing the dole queue or the airport, she said. The Government “should hang its head in shame for the way they have been treated”.
She added: “Nurses and midwives did not deserve to have their wages cut by a so-called pension levy. Nurses and midwives do not deserve to be targeted to pay for the crimes of property speculators and bank executives. We live in the real world – we know that there is a global economic crisis and we are willing to do our fair share . . . but only our fair share and we want to know that those at the top are paying their fair share too.”
She condemned the moratorium on recruitment in the health services as a crude measure which she said showed a lack of creativity of the part of the Minister for Finance. “It seems to me that the Department of Finance is now running the health service, so what do we need the Department of Health for?” she asked.
The conference continues today when delegates will hear an update on the work of an independent commission set up to assess if a 35-hour week could be provided for nurses.