Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ambulance personnel who are members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, mounted a sixth day of action yesterday in their continuing campaign to be able to join and be represented by the PNA as their union of choice. The next step of their campaign will be determined when the PNA ambulance branch, the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, NASRA, holds an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, 18 April to consider a further escalation of their industrial action. There are over more than PNA ambulance branch members including paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians, all of whom are determined to achieve their goal, namely, the fundamental right to be represented by the union of their choice. These members totally reject the continued efforts by the HSE to force them to be members of unions they do not want to join. Individuals and groups have a right to choose the trade union they want to represent their interests and to engage in collective bargaining on their behalf.

The Taoiseach has attempted, sadly, to characterise this issue as an inter-union dispute. That is false. The Taoiseach is purposely seeking to misrepresent this dispute. The PNA and NASRA are not in dispute with any other trade union. Nine years ago ambulance personnel decided to organise a branch within the PNA to represent them and this number now stands at greater than 500. What steps have been taken by the Government and the HSE leadership to resolve this dispute? Is the Minister for Health going to allow a situation continue where ambulance personnel have been forced out on strike due to a very solvable dispute? The Minister should talk to the HSE and do the right thing and we have far more pressing issues within the health service to deal with. He should recognise the PNA and NASRA, let these workers pack away their picket line banners and placards, and let them return to their ambulances, proud of the job they do and proud of the union that represents them.

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