asked the Minister for Health if he has received representations for an improvement in the present structure of salaries and working conditions of staff nurses, ward sisters and public health nurses employed by local authorities; if he has considered such representations; and if he is now in a position to make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Salaries and Working Conditions of Local Authority Nurses.
6.
As I explained in my reply to previous questions, the revision of the remuneration and working conditions of nurses employed in the local authority service is a matter for the local authorities concerned in the first instance. Three organisations representing such nurses have submitted separate claims to local authorities and all these claims are now under consideration by the local authorities. I should mention that these claims are by no means identical.
Claims submitted by two of the organisations on behalf of those of their members who are employed by the Mental Hospital authorities were investigated by the Labour Court on Monday last. The recommendations of the Court will, no doubt, be considered by the local authorities in formulating proposals for the many classes of nurses involved in the claims put forward.
Having regard to the advanced stage which the negotiations have reached the Deputy will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to make a statement in the matter now. As I have already intimated, I shall give sympathetic consideration to any reasonable proposals which may be submitted to me by the local authorities.
Does the Minister not feel that the present procedure is rather protracted and would he not consider setting up machinery for arbitration and conciliation whereby these claims would be dealt with on a national basis?
There is such machinery for arbitration and conciliation ending in the Labour Court and that operates on a national basis in this case.
Am I not correct in stating that there are at the moment three claims, not necessarily of the same kind, pending?
That is quite true. There are three.
Would it not be possible to have these claims operated through a single board that would deal with all these types of claim?
That is a matter for the organisations and the nurses concerned. The nurses are free under the Constitution to join any organisation they may like for the purpose of advancing their vocational claims.
The Minister referred to its being a question for the local authorities. I want to clarify the point again. It was stated recently in the press by the Chairman of the Health Authority that they, the popularly elected body, have no say at all; it was solely a matter for the City Manager.
That is not a question.
The Minister continues to use the expression "a matter for the local authority" when it is his own agent who decides these things.
The Deputy as a member of this House ought to accept the implications of the statues passed by this House. The manager and the elected body are one in this matter; they are the local authority.
We have no say in it.
I cannot imagine the Deputy being anywhere that he would not have a say.
I will have a say in Hell or in Heaven but I have no power. Neither have the others power. Let me get that point home; we have no power. Only the Minister's agent — the manager — has the power.
What is say without power?
I should like to correct that misstatement to emphasise that no county manager or no executive officer of any health authority is an agent of the Minister for Health. They are the agents of the health authority and the local authority to whom they are responsible.
Is it not a fact that the Minister himself directed the county manager in Roscommon——
That is an entirely different matter. The Deputy may not raise all these matters.
Why does the Minister persist in bringing in the local authority when he himself ordered the county manager——
Will the Deputy allow the business to continue?
We object to being libelled. We object to being told that we are agents when we are not.
I object to the Deputy disobeying the rules of order.