Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WHAT’S THE STORY?
1. The Justice Court has heard that Patrick O’Brien’s sentence was too lenient regardless of his age or medical condition.
2. The trail of Architect Graham Dwyer starts this week. The 42-year-old is accused of the murder of Elaine O’Hara.
3. The CEO of AIB is stepping down to pursue a career overseas.
4. Four men have been arrested over a burglary at a service station in Donabate, north Dublin, last night.
5. The weather is not getting any better. This morning started out freezing after frost, ice and fog and snow is expected in the week ahead.
6. Dublin Airport is celebrating it’s 75 year anniversary. Starting out with a grass runway- the airport now carries 435 million passengers.
(Main pic: An artic scene at Kilhope Lead Mine today where giant icicles hang down. Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
of all the public sectors strikes, they have the most legitimate concerns, starting salary 24 thousand for a 4 year degree qualification, poor training opportunities and appalling conditions. I wish them the best
@Brian Mc: I lived with a nurse that made 1800 a month after moving back from Australia. She worked on her days off in a nursing home as a care assistant with far less responsibly and workload and far more pay. They’ve been talking of strike action for a long time and haven’t followed through due to their desire to care for ppl and sense of responsibility. The government know this and will only react to strikes like everything. Hope Harris acts and doesn’t sh!tetalk about targets and plans intot the future.
@Brian Mc: I’d agree with them having most legitimate concerns, and they would prefer not to do this, but the way the public service let their individual departments give in to group demands (rather than having a value/time based pay scale). the fact that the average pay of nurses in their career (who refuse to strike as it impacts patients) is the same as the second annual rise for teachers (who strike without impact annually for purely financial gain) shows this for the unevenness in public sectors. I would 100% also have no problem with HSE funding their demands immediately and include it in the next tax bill.
@Brian Mc: 24k is a fine salary for a 22/23 year old just out of college, after 6 years it’s 36k. They get allowances on top of it.
@Travellers Are Over-represented In Irish Jails: the vast majority of nurses that stay on in Ireland are mature students. Who have bills to pay and a family to look after! After paying uni fees 21k does not suffice.
@Travellers Are Over-represented In Irish Jails: So even after six years they are still below the average industrial wage. Thats just brilliant.
Will we actually all out strike though ??? Iv been a nurse for 18 years and this has never happened . i. have always believed we should have gone all out, As historically in other countries this is the only action that has worked,
I’ll believe it when I see it
@Tonzst Corbett: I agree and thank you for the work you do I believe nurses are total unsung heroes.. your job is so important..
@Tonzst Corbett: nurses and primary teachers have the strongest hand if they go on strike, they threaten strike frequently but never follow through. Often they settle for far below their worth.
The blame must fall on their union leaders for underselling their value to society.
@eric nelligan: irish union ‘leaders’ are so far up the governments ar*e they dont see daylight !
@eric nelligan: Teachers lol……what does a primary teacher get 3 plus months paid holidays, would you ever give me a break and live in the real world!
@Peter Hughes: Primary Teachers are responsible for the most important people in this country…. the children who really are the future…..and try dealing with the unrealistic expectations of parents etc or unruly behavior in these times of litigation. Teachers now minding their p’s & q’s (no pun intended) as to how they approach discipline or difficult behaviors (no harm to change the barbaric punishment of the past but now no discipline at all)As a nurse but most importantly as a parent I am indebted to teachers for educating my children. Granted there are some useless articles who should stay permanently on holidays but by and large the majority are doing sterling work often in difficult circumstances
@Tonzst Corbett: If I had the power, I’d take 25 % off teachers and give it to nurses. I have a daughter doing her leaving cert, and because her Irish, maths and German teachers are so bad and uninterested, I’ve had to fork out to get her some private lessons. When myself and other parents complained to the principal, we were told that because said teachers had the necessary qualifications, there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s nothing short of scandalous.
@jo mixon: If the teacher is not teaching the curriculum and you have evidence of that, then report him/her to the teaching council. Unfortunately, the quality of the teaching can’t be grounds to dismiss but if they are failing in their duties to teach the curriculum or show negligence otherwise then there can be grounds to assess their place on the register.
They deserve every penny.
@Jack Crabbe: mostly they just want to give the patients the care they’ve been trained for. But they can’t due to staff numbers.
So the job becomes unenjoyable, stress levels go up, more drop out, call in sick etc.
Have a great deal of respect for nurses, the workhorse of the HSE. Shame they have to go on strike to get proper renumeration.
With the nurses on this 1. They fully deserve it. Time to re-evaluate the whole HSE system. To many hangers on with over inflated wages while the people who are at the fore front don’t get what they deserve. Time for a big change and also unions need to attitude to adopt these changes.
@Brian: The unions will never let any meaningful change happen, we have 5 admin staff for ever patient in the UK its 2, its another gravy train riddled with management and pen pushers on crazy money……there is no money for front line staff because of this.
Every member of the public needs to back them, and encourage them to strike. Without nurses, I would not be here. They get paid pittance for the amazing hard work they do, and many stay after their shift to finish the paper work so they do the ‘real’ work during shift time. They don’t get proper breaks, or the respect they deserves.
I wish them the very best of luck
The only way for the nurses unions is to follow this course of action all the way ,the Government think that because of the work you do ,you will never follow through,do not get distracted by false promises ,you must act now and do not be taken in by the emotional blackmail that will be used against you ,you have follow through for your future and the future of you colleagues to come .Best of luck ,you deserve it .
@Paul Ruschitzko: the INMO won’t back an all out stoppage.
@Kevin Slater: absolutely correct, however this is make or break for Phil OShea and work to rule won’t wash.
Parity with other allied disciplines should be first on the list. Currently there’s a gap of around €5000 between an OTs salary and that of a nurse working for a similar length of service.
The HSE could be easily fixed by letting go all administrative staff and replacing them with a private sector HR, IT and Facilities firm with Appointments managed by an automated system. The salary savings should be given to frontline medical staff (GP’s, Nurses, Junior Doctors and Consultants)
There is way too many pen pushers in the HSE. If you don’t have a medical qualification you shouldn’t be directly employed in the Health Service. End of Story.
Good on them. Now follow through with it.
The nurses of this country have kept the health service going for long enough on pittance wages an appalling conditions and have been paid lip service for long enough by FF and FG ministers of Health. Lip service does not butter any parsnips,nor save the ED nurses from getting physcially and verbally abused every night doing their job.
Time for FF and FG to realise the reality and stop proppoing each other up to mis-manage the health service and the Country in general.
Simon Harris……
Give these marvellous nurses a pay rise.. they fully deserve it and just stop chucking money Willy nilly at the HSE
Nurses will get nowhere unless it is a full strike. All out with no emergency care or you will be left out.
Well done. Not an easy decision for you, but our corrupt government need to get the message that you will no longer tolerate the outrageous conditions you and our sick and most vunerable have to tolerate. Thank you,you will have our full support.
Im paying enough tax now. If it means more tax, let them strike.
Sorry the HSE is a black hole. Paying nurses more will not fix the issue. They need to speak up and help create an efficient health service before we pay staff more. As said 36K after six years with pension is good pay. We can’t afford any more. The taxes the government receive are finite. We are not getting a good return for our taxes. I am on a waiting list for a bad back which happened in 2016. Why am I paying tax when this is the way you are treated.
Who are all the staff walking around hospitals with Refill pads under their arms?
Coming from a student nurses perspective it’s absolutely mind-boggling to think that when I graduate and work as a pre-registered nurse for 3 months (if take up a post in the HSE), I will be earning around 4 Euro LESS than I would be if I was working as a healthcare assistant on the ward. While earning more
money, I will also have absolutely no responsibility in regard to the legal aspect of a patients healthcare status. So, where is the incentive in that? The governments model is reactive as opposed to proactive and it’s only a matter of time before this crisis manifests into something much more catastrophic.
The evidence shows we have more than enough nurses and they are well paid in comparison with other countries. The issue that needs to be addressed is the closure of the small hospital units scattered around the country and the reassignment of all staff in those units to the larger hospitals where work should be concentrated!!!!!
@Toni Bowler: where are your statistics to show we have ‘more than enough nurses’ ? Please provide a link? And also please provide a link to compare nurse’s wages with a country with parity in cost of living.
@Caitriona walsh: Excluding the Nordic countries we are pretty much top of the list bar one or two!! https://data.oecd.org/healthres/nurses.htm
@Caitriona walsh: And this link shows only two countries pay nurses more than Ireland
https://asset.keepeek-cache.com/medias/domain21/_pdf/media2259/351129-eovm55269c/large/1.jpg
@Caitriona walsh: but this doesn’t show the number of patients admitted to hospital, therefore it’s irrelevant. I highly doubt these respective countries have exceeded 100,000 patients on trolleys in an 11 month period into the year. The issue lies within the fragmented system of overworking the staff by having exceedingly high patient to nurse ratios, hence the retention issue, which in turn results in plugging the shortages with agency which can potentially cost the taxpayer 3x the amount.
Coming from a student nurses perspective, it’s absolutely mind-boggling to think that when I graduate and work as a pre-registered nurse for 3 months (if take up a post in the HSE), I will be earning around 4 Euro LESS per hour than I would be if I was working as a healthcare assistant on the ward while also having a much, much lower workload. Additionally, while earning more money, I will also have absolutely no responsibility in regard to the legal aspect of a patients healthcare status. So, where is the incentive in that? The governments model is reactive as opposed to proactive and it’s only a matter of time before this crisis manifests into something much more catastrophic.
Nurses, please bring this on. You deserve the same and more pay and renumeration as LUAS drivers, and all of the civil service workers sitting in “executive” positions.
Nursing in Ireland is a shambles , only striking for more money …needs urgent reform and rebuilt from the ground up ..
have your say