Nurses to outline plans for further action
Nurses will announce the next stage in their battle for better pay and working hours today as they turn the heat up on the Government and the Health Service Executive.
In an escalation of their strike action, a series of stoppages planned for the coming week will be outlined by the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association.
The step up in action comes after a work-to-rule were nurses refused to carry out admin jobs and hour-long walkouts at hospitals across the country.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was targeted by protesters as he visited at the Fianna Fáil Constituency Office in the Square, Portlaoise.
Previously, nurses have walked off wards of hospitals and mental health units in Dublin, Tipperary, Roscommon, while facilities in Cork, Sligo and Louth were among those hit this week.
The HSE responded by claiming patients are suffering and in a leaked memo even suggested there had been "near misses" with patients' health being put at risk.
An online poll by the Irish Medical News has said 43% of its readers backed the industrial action by nursing unions. The remaining 57% said they did not support it.
More than 40,000 members of the INO and PNA are demanding a 10.5% increase and a 35-hour working week, which has been refused by the HSE.
The INO and PNA will outline the plan at a joint press conference in Ballybofey, Co Donegal this morning.
