“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

37,000 nurses and midwives have taken to the picket line outside hospitals and HSE facilities. They are demanding pay increases and government action on staff shortages. Margaret Frahill, Nurse Manager at Mercy Hospital, Cork, says that when students reach their fourth year in college they are already considering either leaving the country or leaving the profession. She also says that more experienced nurses are leaving due to stress and burnout. "The HSE aren't listening," said Ms Frahill. "They know the salary doesn't relate to other countries. They know we're leaving in droves. "Yet they are recruiting from abroad. They are spending €10,000 on a nurse to come in from abroad, from the Philipines or India." People are also being advised to only attend emergency departments if it is essential. "We have to do it. Enough is enough," said one of the nurses picketing outside Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown in Dublin. "It's time that we got

A preposterous and genocidal National Health Service (NHS) recruitment drive is appropriating and training nurses from struggling 3rd World countries and effectively stealing their best talent. Even worse is the slap in the face of British youth, as managers are looking at Africa and Asia using fear porn lies like a fear that European Union […]