Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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143. To ask the Minister for Health the mechanism he is planning to put in place to deal with anomalies in pay structures for nurses and midwives relative to other professions working in the health service as recommended by the Public Service Pay Commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47603/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Public Service Pay Commission noted that nurses and midwives are seriously aggrieved at what they regard as anomalies in the current pay structures relative to other professions working in the public health service. The Commission went on to say that the Parties to the Public Service Stability Agreement should consider putting arrangements in place, at an appropriate time, and without compromising the stability of the public service pay bill, to allow for the adequacy of current pay arrangements more generally to be fully examined. This is not something which can be addressed in isolation with reference to nurses and midwives or within the health sector. Cost-increasing claims for improvements in pay are precluded under the terms of the Public Service Stability Agreement, 2018 - 2020.