Health sector unions have said industrial action in the public health service Is inevitable if the Health Service Executive (HSE) presses ahead with plans for significant job cuts.
At a briefing this afternoon, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and Impact said the most worrying aspect of the HSE proposals was the decision to stop the renewal of up to 14,000 temporary contracts and 3,000 locum contracts held by staff performing essential front-line or support services.
The unions said the plans to transfer community welfare allowances and associated staff to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the move to transfer 2,000 staff from the hospitals to the community sector and the restrictions on up to 700 nursing posts were not new issues and were currently in process.
The unions said the cutbacks plan, particularly in relation to temporary staff would force managers to take risks with patients safety.
INO general secretary Liam Doran and Impact national secretary Kevin Callinan said they strongly refuted HSE claims that front line services would not be affected.
Mr Callinan said the proposals would be resisted by members with “absolute ferocity”.
Mr Doran said the HSE proposals represented an attempt at a “root-and-branch dismantling of the public health services".
In a statement this afternoon, Siptu national industrial secretary Matt Merrigan condemned the new staffing restrictions proposed by the HSE. “The HSE is planning to cut contract and locum staff as the easy administrative option. It may be an easy option but it will be impact hardest on front line staffing levels and patients”, he said.
“It is impossible to implement this programme of staff cuts without the wholesale closure of hospital wards and seeing waiting lists for procedures grow as long as the queues of unemployed people outside of our dole offices - many of whom will now be health workers," Mr Merrigan said.
"As usual the HSE seems to think it can run the service by fiat, knowing those making the decisions will never have to face the consequences on the ground."