The threatened rejection by the State's 26,000 nurses of the Government's £50 million restructuring package represents a setback for the Government's public pay strategy and could cast a shadow over the current efforts to conclude a new national pay agreement. Most members of the public - especially those who have seen a loved one nursed back to health in recent times - will have a natural sympathy with the nurses case.
For decades the very valuable contribution of nurses to our society was undervalued and often taken for granted. Pay levels for nurses were allowed to slip well below those paid to teachers and other public servants. To compound matters, the current offer - while relatively generous to older and more senior ranks - provides little immediate benefit for young nurses.
But to many observers, the nurses decision to vote against the offer is still incomprehensible. At £50 million, the current restructuring package represents an improvement of no less than £11 million on the offer rejected in May - and it is five times greater that the original offer tabled by the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan. There is a strong sense that the membership of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) - which represents two thirds of all nurses - harbours unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved through its new found industrial militancy.
The options now facing the INO may, indeed, have narrowed as a result of the ballot in which two of the other nursing unions voted to endorse the package. In all the circumstances, it is difficult to see the Government making a more generous offer. The problem should not be insurmountable; with common sense all round, some tinkering with the package can still secure agreement. The alternative - continued industrial strife in the nursing profession with the potential to unsettle the Government's wider public pay strategy must be averted.
The outlook on the industrial relations front is not all bleak the teachers' unions appear ready to accept a £70 million pay and conditions package, while agreements with local authority workers and senior civil servants have also been finalised.
A relapse into the old confrontational methods by the nurses - or any other group - will achieve nothing. The benefits of social partnership are evident in the economic progress that this State has made in recent years. It must not be undermined by unrealistic and unattainable demands.
But the Government must also keep its side of the bargain. Recent warnings by Government ministers that the scope for PAYE cuts has narrowed appreciably will hardly encourage a spirit of compromise on the part of the unions. No sensible person would recommend a profligate approach by Government in the run up to monetary union. But the case for thoroughgoing tax reform in order to lift some of the burden from the PAYE taxpayer is compelling.