THE executive of the Irish Nurses Organisation is expected to ballot its members for strike action when they meet this morning. Last week, members voted to reject a £50 million pay deal.
Late yesterday, the INO met the assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Kevin Duffy, to advise him on the situation and discuss future options.
The INO has called for a meeting with the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, who expressed his disappointment yesterday at the outcome of the ballot.
In a statement, Mr Noonan said that "great care was taken to ensure that the most recent set of proposals addressed to the greatest extent possible the remaining issues in dispute. The proposals resulted from an adjudication on outstanding issues by an independent third party".
The Minister said he would make no further comment until the nursing unions completed their review of the result of the individual ballots of the four unions.
The nursing alliance, comprising the four nursing unions, had recommended acceptance of the latest offer an increase of £10 million on the last offer in January. Two unions, the INO and IMPACT, voted to reject the offer. The INO is believed to have voted by 60 per cent to 40 per cent for rejection, while IMPACT rejected the offer by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, said in Brussels last night that the nurses' vote reflected a misunderstanding on their part that more money could be put on the table. As far as the Government was concerned it had exhausted all room for manoeuvre under the PCW, he said, warning that "no extra push will bring more money".
"There is no extra money," Mr Quinn said.
The Minister said the unions were currently looking for extra tax concessions in the context of negotiations on the next PCW. It was contradictory, he said, to be looking for tax reductions and increases in pay.
However, the Progressive Democrats' health spokeswoman, Ms Cathy Honan, said the pay deal, "a seemingly generous £50 million, is really only worth about £25 million after tax. Clearly tax reform is the only way to put more money in nurses' pockets".
Meanwhile, the management of the Tallaght Hospital has informed the INO that it is producing a new management document that will make provision for the appointment of a director of nursing as one of the senior posts in the new hospital.
The INO had threatened to withdraw co operation in the transfer of 800 members at the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospitals to Tallaght because of the failure of existing proposed structures to include a director of nursing.
The assistant general secretary of the INO, Mr Liam Doran, said yesterday: "Management have committed themselves to produce a revised document this week containing a reference to a director of nursing with a direct reporting function to the chief executive officer." He said this was a positive development.
The chief executive, Dr David McCutcheon, said the hospital had received feedback from official representatives of staff about a number of matters and their concerns would be included "in the next phase of design of the organisational structure".
The INO is expected to resume co operation with the hospital once it has received written confirmation that a director of nursing post will be filled. The target date for the Tallaght Hospital to open is the first week of August 1997.