John Ellis
Ceist:116 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Health the action, if any, he proposes to take to improve the pay of ambulance drivers; and if he will give details of his plans in this regard. [14372/96]
Written Answers. - Ambulance Drivers' Pay.
Limerick East): A claim was lodged by SIPTU on behalf of ambulance personnel and controllers in provincial locations in 1993. The claim sought parity of basic pay with their counterpart grades in the Dublin ambulance service where agreement had already been reached. In February 1994 during the pay talks which formed part of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work discussions, agreement was reached to restore basic pay parity with Dublin, payment conditional on agreement to a range of productivity-efficiency measures, with referral for binding third party decision in the event of disagreement on any of the proposed measures.
Negotiations have been taking place since then to try to reach agreement on a number of productivity-flexibility measures. This has been a complex set of discussions in the context of the publication, in December 1993, of the report of the Review Group on the Ambulance Service. The report heralded a new strategy for dealing with the major policy issues which had arisen in the ambulance service and which had not been addressed in a comprehensive way by the health services.
A number of outstanding issues were referred to the Labour Relations Commission in January 1995. Arising from these conferences a set of proposals were agreed and put to a ballot of the membership. In July 1995, SIPTU advised that the proposals had been rejected. Three meetings have been held in recent weeks to try to progress these talks to a satisfactory conclusion and a further meeting is scheduled for this week.
It is my hope that this issue can be resolved at a very early date. With the monetary aspects of this deal already agreed, the Department are anxious, at this stage, to finalise the details of the productivity and flexibility measures as soon as possible.