The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland are meeting to review the 50 per cent increase in registration fees for nurses for this year. There is speculation that the board may agree to a smaller fee increase in order to stave off further conflict with the nursing unions, which have campaigned vigorously against the imposition of a €50-a-year rise in fees.
Union members in Dublin, Sligo, Cork and Drogheda yesterday held lunchtime protests against the fee increase and vowed to continue their campaign until the board reversed its decision. The unions have circulated badges to members who have paid just €100, the level of the fee last year.
The board itself has tabled a motion at today's meeting to review the increase, although there is no mention of a specific reduction. Minister for Health Leo Varadkar last month suggested the involvement of third-party mediation in the dispute, but to date this has not happened.
A board spokesman said yesterday that nearly half of the State’s 60,000 registered nurses had paid the full fee of €150. “The reality is the union campaign to get people to pay €100 is failing,” he said. “Only 9,000 have paid for the union badges; in fact several hundred have initially paid €100 fee, only to top it up with €50 payment to NMBI later to make sure they stay on register.”
The situation for the board remained unchanged, he added, in that it was a self-funding organisation with no other sources of income other that the annual retention fee. New legislation had imposed a growing number of obligations on the board including, for the first time, the holding of fitness to practise inquiries into nurses in public.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said it would continue its campaign until the fee was reduced to last year's level of €100. General secretary Liam Doran said 30,000 nurses, mostly in the public sector, had not paid, despite "a lot of pressure" from the board.
Nurses who have not paid the full fee face removal from the register from April, and would have to pay a €250 fee to have their name restored to it.
“They can threaten us all they want but the health service can’t work without nurses,” said Mr Doran, who pointed out that the board was charging more than the regulators for other health professions.
