The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, has conceded that the national nurses' strike will go ahead next month despite this week's pay warning by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Talks with nursing unions on emergency cover in hospitals from October 19th will take place next week, the Minister said yesterday in Galway, where he opened an educational conference hosted by the Irish Association of Critical Care Nurses (IACCN).
In exchanges with IACCN's regional representative, Ms Julie Silke, outside the conference in the Ardilaun Hotel, the Minister insisted that the Government had to abide by the Labour Court recommendations.
Responding, Ms Silke told the Minister that "nurses were very angry, adding that it was misleading of the Taoiseach in his pay warning to compare nurses with other professions.
"Try living on a nurse's wage for a year," Ms Silke said to Mr Cowen when she appealed to him to convey her colleagues' concerns to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tanaiste, Ms Harney.
Addressing the conference, Ms Silke thanked the public for supporting nurses in their pay claim, and told the Minister he was "very brave" to have agreed to attend.
Speaking to journalists, the Minister said any objective assessment of the negotiations and arbitration under what was originally a PCW restructuring claim would show that there had been considerable improvements in nurses' pay.
He concurred with the Taoiseach's statement on Thursday, in which Mr Ahern said the Government would stand firm on the outcome of the Labour Court proceedings.
There would be wider public sector implications if any concession was made, the Minister said.
If the Labour Court was undermined by Government, it would have "major repercussions for the way this country does business in future", he said.
It would not be in the interests of nurses, the wider public sector or the economy for this to happen, he added.
"The Government does not seek any confrontation," the Minister continued.
"The Government has honoured everything it has been asked to do by independent arbitration findings. If independent arbitration is a one-way street, then what is the purpose of arbitration?"
The legislation referred to use of the Labour Court in agreed industrial relations procedures.
"We all have to abide by it. It can't be used a la carte," he said.
The Minister told the critical care nurses that an additional £9.5 million had been provided this year for education and training in the sector.
This level of funding reflected the importance he attached to the education and professional development of registered nurses, Mr Cowen said.
