Around 250 nurses and midwives who are members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) took part in a lunchtime protest at Cork University Hospital (CHU) over delays in agreeing a new public sector pay deal.
Among them was Ester Fitzgerald, an ICU nurse at CHU for the past 26 years.
She said that her nursing colleagues are sleeping in their cars because they cannot afford energy costs.
She added that some nurses are in arrears with their mortgages, or with their energy bills.
“This is the final straw from a Government that does not appreciate nurses and midwives in this country,” she said.
“We constantly work in understaffed and over-busy environments, where we cannot provide safe, appropriate care to our patients. We are constantly coming into work, and when our colleagues leave, retire, or are on sick leave, they’re not replaced, and we continue to do the same amount of work in an understaffed and unsafe environment.
“And now, on top of that, we’re being asked to continue in a cost-of-living crisis, where the general cost increases are affecting us as much.
“I drive 140kms to and from work everyday. That is impacting me from a [cost of] diesel point of view, heating, electricity. It’s that’s not a way to treat valuable healthcare workers who are here to serve the public, to care for them, and to look after them in their time of need.”
Since last week, workers across the public sector have been engaging in industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule.
Unions have accused the Government of failing to make meaningful commitments on pay following the expiration of the last public sector agreement at the end of June.
On Tuesday, the Government announced that funding of €1.2bn has been allocated in the Budget for a public sector pay deal.
Unions said, however, that the €1.2bn allocation is not enough to resolve the current pay dispute.
Ms Fitzgerald called for “honesty” from the Government regarding a pay deal.
“This is a Government that is repeatedly saying that our unions are not willing to sit down with them, when that is not the truth. The truth is, our unions are very willing to sit down and negotiate, but it has to be an honest, open negotiation. There cannot be preconceived ideas on either side.”
She added that as a mother of three, dealing with rising costs is particularly hard.
“I have the additional cost of putting them through school. My husband is lucky he’s working, but the wages are staying the same, and the bills are coming in increasing every day.
‘Plenty of work but no jobs’
Midwife Naomi O’Donovan, who also works at CUH said that every month, nurses and midwives are trying to make their pay last longer, or taking on additional hours.
“We’re being asked to work harder and longer. Life then on the outside of the workplace is much, much harder as well,” she said.
“We’re trying to do more with less at home. Sometimes people are coming in and working extra, through short staffing, and it’s making very little difference.
“We are training nearly twice the amount of students in our part of the hospital as we would have in previous years. And now they’re being told that there’s no jobs for them.
“There’s plenty work and there’s no jobs. Not only do we feel disrespected and unheard and ignored as a profession, but this reflects what the Government thinks of the patients, of the sick people, of the service users, and of all the voters out there,” she said.
“It is increasingly more difficult with fuel costs, energy costs, groceries. Everything is being limited and curtailed and you are just pairing back where you can.
“All of us are now already thinking of Christmas and what it’s going to be like for healthcare workers and their families.
“We’re all getting onto our local members of Government at the moment. Emails, clinics, phone calls, in the streets, and I think that we have a right to do that. We have a duty now to do that as well. It’s just the working conditions are absolutely intolerable.”
Midwife and nurse Aoife McGrath has worked at Cork University Maternity Hospital for the past six years, and before that she worked at CUH for seven years.
“Everyone else is feeling the pinch, we’re feeling it too. We’re no different to the public that are out here everyday doing what we can to provide the service that we want to provide.
“Obviously none of us want to get to that [strike] next week. We’d rather put it to bed today and that our demands get met by the Government.
“We love our jobs, we love our patients and we want to provide the care that our patients deserve when they come in. We want them to realise that they’re in a safe environment and they’re getting what they deserve as well, but we need to get that on our behalf as well,” she said.
She added that it was time for nurses and midwives to be heard.
“I drive a two-hour commute to and from work every day. That alone is costing me €70-€80 in petrol a week.
“I can’t afford to keep putting petrol in the car, we’re struggling and it’s not sustainable.
“I want them to meet the request that we’re making of a 12% pay increase. We’re not asking for any major increase; we’re not asking to win the Lotto,” she said.
The INMO says if its demands are not met, it will take part in a national strike by public service workers next week.
