The government must urgently act to resolve industrial disputes involving tens of thousands of healthcare workers, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, 6,500 psychiatric nurses began industrial action in a dispute over unsustainable staffing levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is on top of the 80,000 healthcare workers set to begin a strict work to rule on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the core of this dispute is the Pay and Numbers Strategy. Unions have said that it was presented to them as a fait accompli, without any consultation or strategy document to underpin it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no idea what the pillars of this strategy are – we don\u2019t even know if it is set down in writing. Yet this so-called strategy has had a major impact on our health service, leading to the introduction of severe recruitment caps, the abolition of thousands of funded posts and maternity leave vacancies left unfilled.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunded posts may have just disappeared overnight, but patient need has not. Since this decision was announced last year, we have seen no evidence to support the decommissioning of these posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government and the HSE can deny it all they like, but this is just a recruitment embargo by another name. Meanwhile, community waiting lists continue to spiral, infant developmental checks are being suspended, and radiotherapy machines are lying idle \u2013 all because of staff shortages and unfilled posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I asked the Taoiseach to immediately publish the document which underpins the Pay and Numbers Strategy \u2013 if one even exists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also called on him to begin proper workforce planning and honour commitments to previously funded posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time this government and the HSE started engaging constructively with unions. Otherwise, industrial relations will worsen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe simple reality is that you cannot have services without staff. We need safe staffing levels, not arbitrary recruitment caps.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 26, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government must urgently act to resolve industrial disputes involving tens of thousands of healthcare workers, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice, who is the party\u2019s health spokesperson, said: \u201cToday, 6,500 psychiatric nurses began industrial action in a dispute over unsustainable staffing levels. \u201cThis is on top of the 80,000 healthcare workers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n