Hopes of a quick resolution to the nurses' dispute were receding last night after significant difficulties emerged in trying to agree a framework for talks.
It is understood that these centre around the problem of further increases for staff nurses, who make up 80 per cent of the 28,000 workers on strike.
Nursing cover was reduced to as little as one-fifth of normal levels in some hospitals throughout the State yesterday, as the strike began. Apart from private hospitals, pickets were on duty outside hospitals everywhere, and services were scaled back. Community nursing cover was also badly affected, with only one in 10 public health nurses in some areas turning up for work. Home visits to children and the chronically ill were severely restricted.
Beaumont Hospital was one of the worst affected hospitals in Dublin, with only one of 11 operating theatres open. Of 10 operating theatres in the Mater Hospital only one was open and was reportedly fully booked.
Hopes for an early initiative to end the strike faded yesterday evening. It had been hoped that direct negotiations would begin this morning between the Nursing Alliance and the Health Service Employers' Agency. Earlier in the day the Cabinet had approved a basis for talks on the management side, provided they "facilitate the maintenance of social partnership".
The general purposes committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions also agreed areas for exploratory discussions with the alliance leaders. However, when the ICTU delegation, led by its president, Ms Inez McCormick, and the general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, met senior civil servants difficulties emerged in identifying "nurse specific" issues - issues where concessions to nurses would not lead to knock-on claims from other public service workers.
The secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Paddy Teahan, who led the Government negotiators, is to report back to Mr Ahern, and the secretary general for Public Service Management and Development, Mr John Hurley, is to report back to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, this morning. Mr Cassells is to contact the Nursing Alliance chairman, Mr Liam Doran, to discuss the situation.
Government officials and ICTU leaders will resume their talks at 4 p.m. today. However, it now seems unlikely that the alliance will meet the Health Service Employers' Association and Department of Health officials before tomorrow, when thousands of nurses are expected to converge on Leinster House for a mass rally.
Although both sides were refraining from comment on the details of the discussions last night, Mr Doran said on RTE's Prime Time programme the issue of long service increments for staff nurses "genuinely has to be addressed". This is the area where knock-on claims are most likely to follow.
Earlier, at a press conference, he had indicated that other, less problematic areas might hold the key to progress. Among the issues he outlined then were qualifications allowances for nurses, unsocial hours working, annual leave and "deficits in line management", which can be translated roughly as a lack of promotional opportunities.
At the same press conference Mr Cassells emphasised that ICTU was seeking to facilitate a process for negotiations, but that the substantive issues would have to be addressed by the Nursing Alliance in direct negotiations. The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, told the Dail last night that the crisis in the health services was being "managed" and the Government was continuing to keep it under review.
Meanwhile, the Workers Directors' Group in the semi-state companies passed a resolution at their monthly meeting in Cork yesterday "supporting the nurses in their industrial action and calling on the Minister to resolve the dispute immediately".