Vol. 505 No. 2
119 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the fact that, in spite of a national agreement that temporary nurses would be paid increments in line with their experience, the Southern Health Board is still paying nurses with many years' experience as first year staff nurses. [13367/99]
The detailed management of the health service, including the granting of incremental credit to staff for previous experience, is a matter for each individual health agency. However, in this instance, the Southern Health Board has confirmed to my Department that the relevant national agreements are applied. In particular, temporary nurses are paid in accordance with Department of Health and Children's Circular S103/196 dated 25 November 1992, which gave effect to The Wholetime Temporary Nurses Agreement (1992), as follows: two increments may be granted with effect from 1 January 1992 to those nurses with two years full-time continuous service (or the equivalent of two years aggregate service in the preceding three years) in the health service; a further increment may be granted, if appropriate, not earlier than 1 January 1993; and a further increment may be granted, if appropriate, not earlier than 1 January 1994.
In accordance with the 1997 nurses pay agreement, incremental credit was allowed up to the seventh point with effect from June 1996.
