The Midlands

While services were getting back to normal at Midland Health Board hospitals, nursing staff were mostly negative about the deal…

While services were getting back to normal at Midland Health Board hospitals, nursing staff were mostly negative about the deal.

Many complained that even after quite lengthy service, the proposals would only deliver them an extra £15 per month.

"We have already lost a lot of money by being on strike and providing free a service during the dispute. It seems very little for the action we took," said one Portlaoise nursing sister.

The strike committee leader, Ms Kay Kennedy, of Tullamore Hospital admitted that she, too, had found nurses were quite negative about the settlement package.

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Ms Kennedy, who is supporting the executive in its call for acceptance, said she expected this hostile view would be the case until nurses were fully briefed about the full impact of the deal.

"The series of information meetings will, I hope, reduce the level of frustration that I have found in the midlands today."

Most of the nurses contacted yesterday agreed that they should not go on strike again immediately because it had been much more difficult for them than they imagined.

"I am against the package but I will vote for it if it means that I don't have to go back on the streets again and provide the kind of cover we gave during the strike," said one staff member from the Longford-Westmeath hospital in Mullingar.