The Department of Health told the regulatory body for nurses last week that it was imperative that it reached a negotiated solution with unions in a row over a planned increase in the annual retention fee.

Thousands of nurses and midwives across the country have said they will refuse to pay a 50 per cent increase, to €150, in the fee set by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Siptu and the Psychiatric Nurses Association said they will urge members to pay the current €100.

In a letter sent on November 6th to the president of the board, Paul Gallagher, the Department of Health's chief nursing officer Siobhán O'Halloran urged it to proactively engage with the staff associations in a bid to end the current impasse.

She said the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, was aware of the campaign by unions to encourage members not to pay the planned fee increase.

Dr O’Halloran said the Minister was concerned about the possible implications for the health service and patient safety should significant numbers of nurses be deregistered for failing to pay the retention fee.

Serious matter

“The necessity to avoid a potential scenario where non-payment of the fee will become a serious matter for both publicly and privately funded health services must be an urgent priority for the board.”

She urged the board to “give this matter very careful consideration” at its meeting in November “with a view to agreeing and implementing a course of action most likely to achieve a satisfactory outcome”.

“The department anticipates that the board will act to resolve this serious issue in order to avoid the potential scenario of removal of practitioners from the live register of nurses and midwives from April 2015,” Dr O’Halloran said.

The Department said on Tuesday the HSE could not employ non-registered nurses.

The nursing and midwifery board was still meeting last night. In a statement issued on Tuesday it said the decision to increase the fee followed careful consideration and assessment over 2013 and 2014.

Self-funded

It said the Department of Health had made clear that the board had to be self-funded.

"The action has been deemed a necessary step to ensure Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland can continue to perform its regulatory functions effectively and there were no other routes for us to go."

The board said it had kept the fee as low as possible for as long as possible and that the increases were happening off a low base. “Admittedly, the increases have been in quick succession over the last two years but are unavoidable.”