“Paltry and tokenistic” is how Labour’s health spokesperson Alan Kelly has described proposals by Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe for new talks on resolving the nurses dispute which should focus on issues relating to staffing levels and working conditions but not pay. He told Newstalk Breakfast that the offer was in fact “kind of insulting” and that be believed there would be a compromise eventually and that both sides should “sit at the table and talk.” Mr Kelly said he believed there will be compromise eventually and he asked why the Government could not come up with a solution now without putting the public through a long strike and hardship. He denied that if Labour were in Government the situation would be the same, “fiscally we didn’t have the same space, there is more elasticity now. If we were in Government we wouldn’t have gotten to this place.” The Tipperary TD said he had

The president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, Dr Emily O’Connor is calling on the HSE and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) to “reach a solution in a sustainable fashion.” The health system is already overstretched and there needs to be immediate action, she told RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show. The association’s concerns were addressed in a letter sent to both the HSE and the INMO. “We wanted to flag the effects that a strike is going to have on emergency departments.” Dr O’Connor pointed out that emergency departments typically see between 3,500 and 4,000 patients over any 24 hour period. “We will do our best,” she said, but she is concerned that nurses who are trained in the Manchester Triage method will not be available. Under the Manchester Triage system nurses are able to identify who needs to be treated first. Doctors are not trained to do this, she said. We are concerned we won’t have