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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 17 Dec 1996

Vol. 473 No. 1

Written Answers. - Ambulance Service.

Austin Deasy

Ceist:

48 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Health the current position in relation to pay parity for the ambulance service to bring it into line with other emergency services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24340/96]

Limerick East): The report of the review group on the ambulance service was published in November 1993. The group, in their report, stated that the ambulance service is an emergency service similar to the Garda and fire service. The report of the review group has been accepted by Government and forms the basis of Government policy in relation to the ambulance service.

While the ambulance service acts as an emergency service in respect of its accident and emergency work, approximately half of all ambulance calls are not of an emergency nature but are related to the routine transport of patients. In addition, classification as an emergency service does not suggest that ambulance personnel are being asked to carry out the same duties as either the fire service personnel or, indeed, the Garda.

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 which heralded a new strategy for dealing with the major policy issues which had arisen in the ambulance service and which has not been addressed in a comprehensive way.

A number of outstanding issues were referred to the Labour Relations Commission in January 1995. Arising from this, a set of proposals was agreed and put to a ballot of the membership. In July 1995, SIPTU advised that the proposals and been rejected. A number of meetings have been held since then to try to progress these talks to a satisfactory conclusion. An intensive series of discussions have taken place in the last few months in which progress has been made on a number of the outstanding issues.

Final agreement was reached on a package of proposals in recent weeks. This package is currently being balloted on by the ambulance personnel. It is my hope that this offer will be accepted and that this group's parity with their Dublin counterparts will be restored.
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