HOPES of avoiding the threatened strike by nurses received a boost yesterday when the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, hinted there may be extra funds to meet the nurses' demand for pay increases.
The country's 27,000 nurses have been voting on the Government's £20 million pay deal. The indications are that the deal will be formally rejected next week when the final ballot results are known.
However, Mr Noonan suggested in Cork yesterday that the £20 million package may not be the Government's final offer and that more money may be available if the alliance of nursing unions agrees to enter negotiations.
"I wouldn't be asking for new negotiations if as soon as they started, I was going to say £20 million is the limit and we can't go any further," said Mr Noonan, adding that he recognised many of the nurses' grievances were legitimate ones.
"It's only when the nursing unions come around the table and prioritise the difficulties they have that we will be able to see what extra money may be available to re mediate the difficulties."
Mr Noonan said he expected the Government's proposals to be rejected by the nurses but there was no question of asking the nurses' unions or their members to abandon the ballot, which was almost complete.
"It [the ballot] was a very good thing to do. An offer was made and many a union executive could have rejected the offer out of hand, but they actually put it to their members and, of course, that process has to go to completion," he said.
Mr Noonan said his Department did not have endless resources and whatever settlement was finally agreed with the nursing unions would have to be within the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
While it would not be possible to give across the board special pay increases applying equally to everyone, extra money could be given through restructuring in professions such as nursing and teaching.
Mr Noonan was speaking at the laying of the foundation stone for a £10 million extension to the Mercy Hospital in Cork. The extension will provide an extra 144 public beds 20 day care beds and 50 psychiatric beds in the voluntary hospital.