Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

That is a very fair question. I will try to keep the issues simple and to the point. Agreement on a 35-hour working week at an early date is what the nurses are seeking. Management is prepared to concede that in principle and to start the first round at a relatively early date. That was discussed at the negotiations but I do not want to breach on something where they had their own walls around the discussions. That was the first issue. They agreed to work intensely to see how on a cost neutral basis this will work out given the loss of 7.7 million hours. That work cannot be done in a week or two, it will take some more time. In fairness to the nurses side, they say they are prepared to engage in that work but want a definite date on completion before they start the process. That is the obvious difficulty. That is creative enough if they agree to do the work. If one agrees to the 35-hour working week, the process will take a few years because every nurse will lose about 30 days per year.

The second issue was the pay anomaly. The management side does not have a difficulty with addressing the pay anomaly for those who suffer the anomaly. That issue was raised in the discussions and should be cleared up. The third issue is that Towards 2016 provides for a 10% increase for nurses. If they sign up to it they are entitled to that 10% increase. We should not forget they are entitled to that increase. The fourth issue is what I think is the impossible one. I do not see this as an imaginative issue. The Labour Court has looked at this at length. The NIB looked at it for three weeks at length. One cannot roll on the anomalous grade of 40 to 45 people and give that to everyone to solve an anomaly and give a 10.6% increase to everybody. Given that an agreement is in place under Towards 2016 it is impossible for a Government to give it.

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