Nurses and regulator to hold talks on dispute over 50% fee rise

Nursing unions and the regulator for the profession are to hold further talks with an independent third party in an effort to resolve a dispute over a 50 per cent increase in the annual registration fee.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland has warned nurses they will be taken off the register if they do not pay the full €150 fee for this year.

The fee for 2014 was €100 and for 2013 it was €88.

Senior officials with the board met Minister for Health Leo Varadkar on Thursday, after which the Minister’s spokesman said there was discussion on the means by which the board and unions might come to agreement on the fee structure for the future.

Describing the meeting as very useful, he said there would now be further engagement between the two sides.

The board is facing considerable costs arising from changes in the way the laws governing the professions operate, and also from the costs of handling fitness-to-practise complaints, he said.

“While the Minister has no role in setting the fee, he is conscious that only one third of nurses have paid the fee so far.

“Taking nurses off the register in a few months’ time would create huge problems for hospitals and community facilities which need nurses to function, and for nurses themselves who would not be able to work or get paid if they were not registered.”

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has told its members to pay only the existing fee of €100.

The nursing board has just published its accounts for 2012 and 2013, which show it bought its headquarters in Blackrock for €14.8 million in 2006. However, this is now valued at just €3.1 million.