Seanad report: It would have ultimately cost the Exchequer €2 billion to concede all the claims of the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association, the Seanad was told last night.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister for Health, Minister of State Batt O'Keeffe said an initial estimate of the ongoing cost of the claims was more than €800 million per annum. This did not include increased pension costs. In addition, the unions were seeking retrospection estimated at €566 million.
"It is also estimated that in excess of 4,000 additional nurses would be required to make up the shortfall if the working week were to be reduced from 39 to 35 hours. It should be noted that other key health service grades, including junior doctors, health care assistants and other support staff, work a 39-hour week.
"If the claims had been conceded there would have been significant knock-on claims from other health service grades and wider public service with an estimated cost to the Exchequer in excess of €600 million per annum."
Mr O'Keeffe said the Labour Court did not recommend concession of any of the major claims made by the two unions. Instead it had urged them to reconsider their position with regard to participation in benchmarking so as to have their claims examined through that process.
Fine Gael Senator Joe McHugh urged the Minister to intervene and get involved "before this escalates" because the unions would possibly ballot in a direction that the Government would not like them to do.
Agreeing that the issues raised by the Leas Cross report must be debated thoroughly, House leader Mary O'Rourke said that what incensed her was that no one was accepting blame for what had happened.
"We're all destined to get old no matter what we do, and you keep thinking, there but for the grace of God go I, of so many other people that you see - as we saw on the Prime Time RTÉ programme - being ill-treated, being abused, being whatever.
"What I am very incensed about is that nobody has said, lámh in áirde, 'I am to blame.' They have not done so. In fact, they have bypassed all of that. So I don't know if accountability is going to come out of it, seeing that the Minister for Health couldn't publish the report for a long while 'til people had a chance to put in their points to it."
Terry Leyden (FF) said numerous members of the main political parties had run the health boards since the 1970s. "As a former chairman, I can tell you I was aware of what was happening on the ground." There had been high standards in relation to private nursing homes retaining their licences. Board members had been regular visitors to them.
The Taoiseach seemed to be aligning himself and the Garda Síochána with a malign multinational corporation, David Norris (Ind) said. The House should debate the Shell to Sea campaign in the light of the extraordinary remarks of the Taoiseach that, more or less, dialogue was over and no further correspondence would be entertained.
Maurice Cummins (FG) said the treatment gardaí were being subjected to in Mayo was appalling.