Agency ones cost a lot more than regular staff. And some of them are those who took early retirement schemer and came back in again. Agency staff should only be for acute emergencies, not a permanent basis

….unless their dad works for KPMG.

Isn’t it a great pity that the teachers unions didn’t react in the same way when new recruits were hit with something similar last year! Nurses are by nature caring, decent human beings though of course!!

This will likely make more head off to Australia!

What’s the problem?
Take up a different career, anybody would think you are being forced into labour camps the way you lot are going on.
Get a life – and a different job!

So Paul Mc
What do you do and how long did you train for it ?
Are YOU responsible for peoples lives in your care ?
Do you get paid appropriately ?

Am in bits here laughing at you red thumbers, do you not get the reality of economics, supply and demand, economic reality?
Don’t start a job in nursing if you do not like the pay!
When we run out of nurses they will have to raise the pay.
Duh!
If the supply is there at €22k then pay €22k, if nobody takes the jobs then raise the wages.
Hello, what part of this do you not understand ?

Paul your obviously a bag of sensitivity!

Eileen, I started work at 18 and was paid 20 pounds a week under a manpower scheme. This was considerably less than a lot of other school leavers at the time, after a few years on lousy wages I was head hunted by another company because I was very good at my job and received good training, the company I worked for made me an offer I could not refuse so I stayed with them for 10 years, I now run my own company and make a very nice living.
I did my time on bad money and worked hard, earned respect in my trade and went to night school to better myself.
Any more questions?

Ah paul
I have tissues here crying for you . That was then , 1970’s ….. A mortgage on a decent house was what 15-20 pounds a week ! Get a grip would ye . These young people are better educated NOW in their early 20′s than you could ever be. You sound like a very bitter person who due to life choices you missed out on a lot and begrudge these decent kind healthy young well educated people their time , their futures. Maybe it is time for you to retire and move on.

Sensitive to what?

Eileen, I love the journal.
It’s a great medium to exchange points of view.
I am a realist, I accept my situation and the reality of my surroundings.
I have had to cut my wages by 50% over the last three years but I don’t moan or bitch about it, it’s reality.

By the way I left school in the mid 80s not the 70s so 20 quid was crap money then.

Maybe if you worked harder you would not have had to reduce your income Paul.
I live in the real world and the world we are now living in has been artificially manufactured to
sustain the lifestyles of the rich and powerful .
I too worked hard for my crust and did it in the knowledge that it would be some what easier for my children to progress.
However this is not the case . My kids are ok but a lot of their peers have had to emigrate not to earn more but just to work . To work to upkeep their skills and training . It is terrible what ever way you look at it.
So please lay off the usual old rhetoric of ….Back i9n my day blah blah blah. These nurses have earned more respect than that.

While they cut pay to the frontline services the government reward themselves with these ….http://twitpic.com/bspkit

@Paul Mc I am currently an unpaid student nurse. I LOVE my job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. The fact is to gain the right type of nursing experience in this country when you qualify you need to work for the HSE. I find it insulting when you say if you don’t like the pay don’t take the job. I have paid my own way thus far through my education and will be rewarded with a degree, however this degree is being undervalued by the HSE. If people take these contracts we as nurses will earn less than the cleaner on the ward and have way more responsibility. All we are asking for is fair pay for a fair days work! Also go get another job? Tell us where in Gods name they are first!

they’re aligning it with what a fully qualified intern would start on in the private sector, which is fair enough.

Eileen, what do you mean if I worked harder I would not have had to cut my wages?
I only referred to my past as you asked me about it.
You know nothing about me and are a bag of wind with no substance to your argument.
You really are out of touch with reality.
I am not going to discuss this any further with you as you are clearly unrealistic and can not formulate a cohesive and realistic argument.
Get Agrippa on reality my dear and formulate a cohesive argument before you enter a debate.
Bye….

But we are not interns! We do our 9 month internship in 4th year. Therefore why should we be alligned to private sector internship rates when we are fully qualified and have some experience through 80 weeks of clinical placement over 4 years?

Adam, reality sucks.

I am not disagreeing with your point. Completely agree. But to be fair, you shouldn’t make begrudgery comments towards cleaners. After all, they are responsible for disinfecting hospitals and keeping the place sanitised. Far too often this is overlooked and is very important all things considered.

Sorry. Comment is to Adam Miller.

Ah now Paul Dont be like that … See how it feels now the shoe is on the other foot ? Maybe if YOU retrained or got up earlier . I am jut saying like ‘
These Nurses / teachers /gardai/ all have had their wage scut radically . These particular young nurses are only arguing to maintain their ground ,but you have a problem with that. Think on Paul ,before you criticise others . Think on.

You don’t leave it till there is a shortage of workers paul. There already is any many have left here. You left school whatever, you were paid crappy wage for unskilled labour hence why people get degrees and diplomas these days. Along the way you learned skills and that was recognised through your pay. But you also had lower cost of living.

Nurses should be paid. Paid well and paid evenly. Take a euro out of my pay per week give it to nurses. I’m sure that little bit extra from all of us would pay for these undervalued people

@Patrick I am not begrudging them or making little of their. I know about the importance of infection control. I am making a point that after 4 years of hard work and sacrifice not to mention blood, sweat and tears (literally), we will come out and earn less than somebody who may not necessarily have a degree, who has no stress and doesn’t have an obligation to advocate for patients and their patient’s safety.

@adam You need to remember a Degree is a good starting point yes. However you seem to undervalue the importance of life experience and indeed solid work experience. Sure work placement is college in a course is a stepping stone but it is not the same as full time experience over a number of years. We all have to start somewhere. We many not like the starting wage but it is a stepping stone in the right direction if you work hard at your job. Eventually hard work is rewarded. So yes 80% is less. Yes it is somewhat harsh. But it is a stepping stone if your willing to get on with it. Later the bigger wages will arrive.

Adam
I understand exactly where you are coming from , as do most decent people who comment on here . The problem is when you have government sympathisers degrading the job you do because the government do not want to pay their way. Good luck in your future. Do not mind the begrudgers. Stand your ground ,you know what you are worth.

I am a qualified social care worker and I wish the government would create this for social care workers. I would gladly sign up to working for 22k.

Adam get used to it you will always be paid less than porters,cleaners and clerical staff for more responsility that’s why we nurses take early retirement and they stay where they are sad but true

Health is not an economic entity Paul. Why aren’t the teachers being attacked? There is a surplus of those!!

Ill say it again paul.
When you need the nurses they won’t be there.
This is just not a matter of nurses taking a lower pay , it’s about an idiot government policy which is further ruining a health system which is already ruined by similar stupidity.

And a idiot too!!! Lets see if he sticks with this when he in in hospital himself or one of his loved ones and these nurses who are caring for him….

I agree Eileen don’t forget not all student nurses are young! Many are mature with children and mortgages. Isn’t it all well and good for Paul with his “I’m alright jack” attitude. I wouldn’t even rise to him.

You do realise student nurses are rostered on wards as a working nurse to make up for the understaffed HSE. Thrown into the deep end is an understatement when it comes to nurses training. So what your saying is “yea your expected to act exactly like a nurse even as a student but dont ever expect the pay of one”! Ever!!

@Paul MC

I smell ‘penny apples’…..

You’re Bill Cullen aren’t you?
Yes you are! Ha!

Look at the gob on that one

Glass half full – that’s William to you.

Market conditions apply, why pay more when you can get if for less.

By the way, I only go to Mater Private or the Hermitage if I need medical attention.

No need to mix with the peasants.

Why be worried about mixing with the peasants when they are in-charge of your care!!

Paul Mc
you really take the biscuit …

Eileen, with a nice cup or earl grey.

Paul Mc
Just burger off under your bridge you troll

Dave, burger off!
To Mc Donald’s maybe?

That spell checker on the IPhone is a real bitch, keeps changing words and if you dont read what you write you get some funny results.
I assume burger was bugger : -)

Just love winding journal readers up, you take the bait so readily. He he he.

I’ve seen similar bullying strategies in other areas of the HSE. Also happy to career change because if it. Would leave the country only for ties to negative equity mortgage.

Yes, nurses, not trainee nurses, that oils the difference!
Try a different job if you don’t like the terms and conditions.

Yes I know it only takes 2 weeks to be come a nurse.Spanner

Paul Mc
Tell us all how did you train to do what you do ?
The terms and conditions for nurses are already there but have been changed …abruptly ….yet again.

Eileen, my answer is above.
We all start on crap money because we know shag all, we earn more by educating ourselves and working hard.
Just because you do a particular job be it teaching or nursing does not entitle you more than an apprentice mechanic, electrician or plumber.
Reality check my dear.

Paul Mc These guys and girls need and deserve our support and our leadership, not begrudgery. I think theyare all great to be who they are and I wish them well . They should be paid in accordance to what their colleagues are being paid

@eileen- you’re not paying all your taxes so you’re part of the problem when it comes to the state not having sufficient funds to maintain staff pay.

Fair enough Paul
I wish you well .
And I am sure that every one of the nurses you are criticising here, if you were ever to become ill, would no doubt look after you as if you were their number one supporter.

Eileen, as I stated in my first comment. If you like the wages then don’t take the job.
You called me bitter and begrudging, I am neither.
I am a realist, if I can get somebody to do a job for €5 per hour then I will.
If I can not get anybody at this price then I will have to raise my offer.
Feelings or emotions do not come into the equation.
It amuses me that the majority of people vote with their emotions and refuse to accept reality.
Market conditions prevail.

Well said Vincent. You’ll be a while waiting for Eileen’s reply I reckon

“Market conditions prevail. ” Really? Does this apply to everyone? What about the banks? Why did the taxpayer have to bail them out? Why were the markets not forced to take the hit on their gambles on Irish banks? Because it is much easier to make young nurses, teachers etc. pay and tell them it’s all to do with “market conditions”.

Vinnie / Dillon / see my vest ha ha …
I was not aware that we are obliged to reply to any comment ! That’s a new one .
Have a nice evening . :)
I have always paid my taxes . stop trying to distract the issue .
My 100 would not pay the nurses but what is in this link would . Enjoy.

http://twitpic.com/bspkit

@Eileen- like you, 30% of the country hasn’t paid their €100. Combined that would comfortably cover that extra 20% of Nurses pay. So as I say…part of the problem.

Ahem
50% Vinnie . But I wonder is that of 1,900,000 or 1,600,000 The government just can not decide !
However yet again you are trying to distract and detract . http://twitpic.com/bspkit

Exactly Paul MC, both my kids did four year degrees, one mechanical engineering, other radiation therapy, engineer has gone to UK NOT by choice, but no job at any pay to be had here, rad therapy has job outside of health area with a very well know company here, and despite getting a gold medal from college, still only earns early 20′s, we all have to start at the bottom and get experience, technically I know it’s kinda exploitation, but hey it’s going on in a major scale here, even with people in employment and years of experience (me!), employers are taking the piss BIG time…hopefully what goes around comes around!

@Eileen- I’m not trying to distract at all. The subject is Nurses & why they face a reduction in wage. My point is that their employer, the Irish State doesn’t have the money to pay them and that you, as someone who is not contributing fully to the state are part of the problem and its a little rich for you to be angry about the “effect” when you are the cause.

Noto, really?
Better cut the wages a bit more so.

Eileen, will you please point out where I criticised nurses?
I love nurses, went out with plenty of them in my younger days and the uniform really turns me on. ; -)

John
The only two options available to a bankrupt State under your proposal of equal pay for equal work is to resource either the number of nurses or bring all nurses salaries back by a percentage equal to the cost of salaries for the additional nurses being hired.
Any other approach is the typical Irish solution of Magic Economics!

Kevin, we voted in the politicians.
If you don’t like what they do then vote them out.
That is reality.
By the way, we are only just swinging back into reality, things will get worse before they get better on this little island of ours, our Celtic tiger cubs that are now entering the work force think they are entitled to a job, wage, living etc – in reality none of us (except pensioners) are entitled to anything but the very basics in life, it’s up to each individual to make the best of our situation.

Get your facts right Paul. They are fully trained and qualified nurses. An apprentice electrician in their 4th year get 38k which I think is a gross overpayment but this is government protected. So tell us why a person responsible for your health should get almost half the wages of someone who is not yet qualified to wire a house?

John. Why aren’t government or advisors or senior people in government quangos being cut then. Surely that’s the first place to start. Irish solution to an Irish problem!

Apologies, meant for Michael

And where are the plumbers and electricians now? For all their hard work and years of experience? Oh that’s right emigrated, on the dole or retraining in something totally different and men and women in their 50′s treated like transition students on their work experience. Paul MC u are a knob! Adios

Cover that extra 20% of pay for nurses or pay the banks bonuses and bondholders?? Hmmm I wonder where that money will go?

Yes we did Paul – and in the case of the previous government we voted them in three times. However my point was in relation to the markets. Our nation was sacrificed to protect the markets or in particular British, German and French banks who had gambled massively in our property sector. The natural laws of economics would say that they gambled and lost and therefore should have taken the hit. However Europe and the ECB have said that the Irish tax payer should take the hit instead and the previous and present governments seem to agree

Paddy
We know in advance the terms and conditions, don’t start on this path if you don’t like where it goes.

But this is not got trainee nurses !

Kevin, yes market conditions.
I don’t see thousands marching on the streets, I don’t hear thousands ringing radio stations so what’s the moaning for.
When 250k people march up Kildare street screaming for ministers to not pay bondholders then I will believe.
Until then we are sheep being herded by the sheep dogs in power.

Exactly well said. We need a more radical approach these type of demonstrations will not change anything.

Welcome to the reality many others have had to face, is there some reason nurses think they’re exempt from having their earnings cut?

@Aimee- I think a lot of people remember Liam Doran & co. holding the country to ransom when times were good. That exhausted a whole lot of goodwill. There’s also an understanding that Irish nurses are by and large paid a lot more than their European counterparts.

Kinetic nurses don’t think they are exempt they are just asking why why the govt decided to pick on new grad nurses? Why not Save more money and cut everyone’s wages equally teachers doctors etc.

2009 – Entry level for newly qualified nurse was 33,470. January 2011 reduced to 28,500 February 2012 reduced to 27,211 and December 2012 reduced to 22,000??? I do not for one second think nurses are exempt from having our earnings cut its the norm and no one who choose to become a nurse did so to become rich but there is only so much of a hammering we can take with all other tax contributions increasing we certainly do not think we are exempt but after 4 years in college I will not just be a new graduate with no experience I will have spent 4 years on wards during placement learning and developing my skills and will be accountable for my own actions and fully competent in my profession, through this I think I am well entitled to a fair wage without further more cuts!

Why are you entitled? You’re owed nothing by this country. You’ve received a good education (which im sure both the taxpayer and yourself have contributed to) and like every other person who has completed 2nd/3rd level education, there is no guarantee of employment.

You really haven’t got a clue what goes on in this country. Do you think it’s fair that an chief executive in a toxic bank should get a pension of €500.00

Junior doctors have taken a 20% cut since 2010…

And there will be no more overtime either in the future those figures are shocking start looking at flights

Croke park, can’t cut pay in the permanent ranks. It’s the elephant in the room, but imagine the protests if that happened.

Ok but why cut juniors wages? Would it not be fair to cut across the board?

We have already been cut by 24%. We’ve taken our beating already!

@noto- you’re not paying all your taxes so you’re part of the problem when it comes to the state not having sufficient funds to maintain staff pay.

What staff are you talking about. Is it the chief executives in state owned company’s with million pound pensions.

@Noto- Nurses, for example. You know. The subject of the article above.

Yvonne teachers and doctors (new grads) have also had their pay cut… just like half the bloody country, and loads in the private sector have been let go..believe me it’s happened in my house…I earn about half of what I earned five years ago and likewise my other half…that’s through job loss, outgoings the same (thankfully no neg equity), really it’s an adjustment we all have to make, none of us feel its fair!!!!!!

Fortunately this pay cut does not affect me.

Kinet1c, nurses don’t think they are exempt at all, we’ve taken all the hits with everyone else! The starting wage of a staff nurse when I started my studies in 2009 compared to this 22k offer is 35% of a reduction. Anyone else had a 35% cut? Yes, we have to take the hits with everyone else, but in proportion and this is not fair!

kinet1c
this is not just about the nurses getting lower pay, it is about the government running the health system into the ground with stupid policies. The government will save very little out of this, and long term it will cost a lot, lot more.
Their last idiot policy was the recruitment freeze – that was shown to save no money and the agencies made a fortune.
This is your health system they are underminding, and you along with everyone else will need it someday – at your worst hour.

@vincent are you some sort of mouth piece for revenue with your digs about paying tax, if you paid it big fecking deal but throwing digs at people is getting boring stick to the subject not shoving something that doesnt have a relevance down peoples throats

We’ve gone so far right that if Mussolini was alive today he’d probably be called a dirty commie.

Ruairi
Well done Roger. Another of our contributors with an undiagnosed penchant for violence which will one day get you into a lot of trouble unless you deal with it.

I’ve allready done my internship. Your final year in nursing is an internship. Worked all year for 8.30 an hour

Not to mention that the internship pay has been slashed (was almost abolished entirely but I think now it’s being phased out over a few years)

For sure Thomas, one must simply admire those altogether enticing Irish style, free labor kind of options, available to young people residing in the state. They should really hang around in Ireland and take full advantage of being taken advantage of. The sheer luxury, albeit privilege, of working for nothing will no doubt enable a young person to get a financial foothold here in the land of make believe.

I wish I was young again so I could work for nothing with a 15% chance of full employment.

Internships my furry butt. That “I had to walk 15 miles and swim through a bog to get to school when I was young and it was good enough for me” kind of mentality, doesn’t wash with my kids.

They want to work and believe it or not Thomas, they want to be paid, cash money. They paid cash in our day for working for a living last i checked.

I’ve told them all, you want a life? go get it elsewhere. It’s not to be found here in Ireland anytime soon.

@ Louise – You got paid for your internship many other degrees do not. I did 9 months work placement in college and got no pay, no travel expenses noting. I am a fully qualified social care worker and am now going to take up an internship after four years in college, for which I will recieve 4.50 an hour. So while you got paid to do your placement in college I got noting, and now while you are complaining about being paid 22 k, I am going to be paid less than 7000 for 9 months of work.

Nurses have been well looked after for years, and I am glad that they are now finaly not going to get paid for college placements as many other courses in the public sector do not.

And please someone in the government please listen to other graduates who would only be too happy to work for 22k a year for 2 years, please create this opportunity for social care graduates too.

Neasa I know where your coming from, daughter did radiation therapy (treating cancer patients), was sent on numerous placements sometimes three months at a time outside of Dublin (where we live), she got paid nothing, and we had to fund it!!! Also required more CAO points than nursing, but then they have a union behind them!

Oh Joan fair play to your daughter for getting high points in her leaving you must be so proud there are unions for all workers even radiographer’s!!! It’s how vocal the unions are that counts personally I’m a nurse and midwife and I left the INMO to join siptu because you can be certain that Liam Doran will eventually sell these new grads down the river when the government feathers his cap like he has in the past.

I’m in a crap situation and I’ll not be content until everyone else shares the taste of it with me. God forbid anyone should get a better deal than me. Kind of sums up the Irish approach to inequity.

The nurses march, what makes you think that one requires a union to voice an objection. You need an email account, a phone and a belligerent personality that loves the combination of civil service style obfuscation and the persistent rejection of common sense.

What you don’t need to do is to cry about how other people have managed to achieve what you have not achieved and victimize them in doing so. But then again I appear to have forgotten one really important fact……I live in Ireland and such is to be expected.

At least you got paid something!

That is not the attitude I have. I am stating the fact that people are never happy and can not see how lucky they are to be offered 22k.

Many professions would love the opportunity to be offered a two year full time contract at 22k.

I am not saying that because my situation is bad that everyone else’s should be. I am saying that 22k is not a bad situation to be in, and I would happily be in that situation.

I don’t feel that because I went to college for four year I should get x amount of pay, I believe that a degree is only a starting point and that experience is worth as much in the long run if not more than ones degree. So two years of medium pay gaining experience or two years working in an environment where experience is not being developed but you get more pay, In The long run the experience is more valuable, and I would love to be given that opportunity to gain that experience at that pay, and so would many of the other individuals in my class.

Neesa,
Social care workers deserve better. That is a fact. But nurses are not your enemy.

Well said Dave

And ye weren’t making tea or reloading paper in the photocopier during it. Pay for new staff nurses should be going up, not down.

Adam get a life, I spent 7 months watching staff in Hospital, and another 2 yrs in other hospitals, yes some work hard, but no getting away from it they get their perks too, a lot of nurses are still looking for jobs and can’t get them because others do overtime. If a lot were honest about it, it’s not for the sick or to be Florence Nightingale, the money is the attraction. Be glad you have the job, thousands haven’t, I am now a carer, 24/7 no overtime payments, just the bare 230 a week, any HSE worker like to change places with me.

Eileen no one is saying anything against carers. The cuts and situation ye are in is absolutely disgraceful. HSE has a lot to answer for. however I for one can honestly say I did not become a nurse because of the money.
Instead of arguing with other professions maybe we should stand together and demand what’s required of the HSE: more front line staff, more support for carers, any other suggestions?

Nurses already start on lower wages for the first year – all of the nurses affected by this new cut have ALREADY DONE that year. These are qualified staff nurses, not apprentice burger flippers in supermacs.

What a stupid comment. That is line with me saying to all nurses why don’t you go back to college and train as a teacher since you are not happy with what is being offered.

Also I would love to go back to college to up skill but having no job, and about to start a very very low paid internship does not allow me to go back to college.

I think nurses do a wonderful job, i cant fault them. I do jot see them as the enemy, but What i am saying is that i would jump at this opportunity if it was available in my field, and so would many other graduates who have no other option at the min other than to claim job seekers or take up an internship which only pays 50euro along with job seekers, which would leave them a lot worse off.

And just to the girl who made the comment, at least comment on something which I have said instead of writing a stupid comment which is not realistic or not just plain stupid.

Sandra your so right and something we are all mindful of I have a triple qualification and my most important asset is my registration and it has been in all four countries I’ve worked in its hard to gain hard to keep and easy to loose I mind mine very carefully.

Are their pensions equal to 12billion?which i believe, is give or take a billion the cost of the Health service.

Sorry if you have missed the point

That thinking leads to serfdom.

Serfdom ? Welcome to the free market my friend.

Most nurses still get good wages, JOHN DOE’s elitist remarks about good enough for someone washing dishes, the dish washer, waitress, etc work a hell of a lot harder than nurses.

No they don’t Eileen, not by a long shot. Dishwashers are replaceable by, well, pretty much anyone. Nurses can’t be replaced by grabbin the first randomer of the street. There’s a big difference.

@Eileen Roache ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Have you been in a normal ward in a HSE hospital recently? Nurses are understaffed and often the nurse:patient ratio is as high as 1:12! You try caring for 12 people who may be critical care, who’s incontinence pads you have to change, who you have to have all up before 9am. Then you have medications and lots of paperwork on top of that, not to mention liaising with Physios, O.Ts, Med. Social Worker and the Consultants team for each of those 12 patients! Many nurses go without a break all day. They don’t even have the luxury of getting time to go to the toilet. This is the reality of being a nurse in 2013 and we deserve to get our full €26,000

Dishwashers work harder than nurses?? I am not aware of any recent studies which show this. Eileen where did you pluck this nugget of apparent fact from?

I agree, Adam
And I am an nurse of 20 years experience in 3 different countries.
What you didnt mention is the personal risks nurses take every day. At the very least a nurse can expect to have back problems – some which ruin their lives. Then there is the risk of being assaulted on a daily basis – which nearly all nurses experience at some time. this can also be very serious. Then there’s the risk of disease. Need I go on?
What happens in understaffed wards is you get to the point where the remaining nurses are so burnt out from doing several nurses jobs that they all leave too – and what are you left with? Agency nurses – the very ones this idiot government are trying to save money on, and the young graduate nurses who will move/ or contracts will expire. Believe me, you want the experienced nurses looking after you, not ones who are only there for the day or are relatively inexperienced and are so overworked they dont learn like they should.
I have seen governments try to get rid of agency costs many times in the three different countries I have worked in and the only way is to hire full time, reasonably paid staff who will stay where they are. This is a longer term solution that will benefit everybody – not just the nurses, but everybody who needs health care.
This policy will not save money – it is some idiot accountants and politicians who are looking for short term gains to suit their political career

Make that 22k, typo

You clean up puke, get assaulted, get verbally abused and put up with every drunken lout that comes
In etc. for €20k your Daddy must work for KPMG, he probably earns that in a month, when they are wiping your arse the next time your seriously ill I don’t think you’d begrudge them a decent wage

Is it?? When your highly trained and qualified?? Maybe for someone washing dishes maybe but for a qualified nurse its crap

What professions are you comparing it to???????????

At risk of sounding a little insensitive but here goes….. So what? If you don’t like the job description, or for that matter the pay – choose a different career. Try starting your own business if you can’t find a job or emigrate. Lets face facts folks, as a country, we’re broke so can’t afford to keep paying out ridiculous salaries in the public sector!

Supply and demand people, supply and demand!

It’s also incredible hard to lose your job once you’re made permanent. Ask anyone in the private sector these days what that job security is worth.

Dead right Sean!

“Insert contemporary reference here” to gain a high like rate.
Well done on supporting cyber bullying a young girl who drank to much, and got abused in public.

Your probably right Sean. But until people at the top start taking the same pay cuts and the pat on the back with the big pension stops.ordinary people won’t mind paying their way.

Retrain Heath professionals in a universal database system using photo and electronic record keeping, change ridiculous rules around nurses having to use porters to push patients down the hall or maintenance staff to change light bulbs, and save a fortune on:-
1) Admin staff
2) Porters & maintenance staff
3) All hospital managers – put doctors in charge (a board of senior clinicians)
4) Office supply’s including pens, paper, clipboards, printer ink, etc

Overall, this would save a fortune, make the system a lot more streamlined and, unusually in this country, make it one of the most advanced in the world.

Why won’t it get done?
1) unions for Admin staff
2) unions for Porters & maintenance staff
3) unions for All hospital managers
4) Politicians who poop their pants any time someone talks about technology after the e-voting fiasco!

The cost/saving ratio is going to be pretty obvious and with less back office bulk you may find that there is more cash available for frontline staff like…nurses!

I spent almost 6 years in college to take care if people not to change light bulbs dear!

Totally totally agree…and I work in a hospital, there’s thousands of other grads, many with masters who have left these shores not by choice because they cannot get a job or any experience.

@ Yvonne…. Worried you might break a nail? Come on…. I’m sure you’d rather that than lose a cent of your wages?

Sadly my nails are not the issue.

Teachers?

Sean. I agree, however they need to start with high gov earners and TDs then work their way down through the clerical public sector and eventually EVENTUALLY!!! Finish up with frontline services! These people did not go to college for around €11 an hour gross. If this is the case the min wage needs a €3-4 decrease

Agreed, reducing the minimum wage would be a step in the right direction. What goes up should also come down.

We finally agree on something…. Wonder if you had trained in nursing 20 or 30 years ago would you feel the same way? The way this country is going to get out of its deep fiscal hole is by leaving arrogance back in the good times and actually knuckling down and doing a bit more for the same, or less money.

That was to Yvonne BTW

I agree as well that the minimum wage should drop too.

Did you have to repeat two years?

Lol so nurses who just qualified or are already in training should just look at the new pay and think “nah, ill go back for another 4 years and do something else and sure if that doesn’t work out ill try again!” My god u are thick!!

I’m not arrogant I’m being honest. I have more pressing matters to deal with than have time to change light bulbs or take a lunch break some days

And no I did not repeat 2 years

I hope you all understand that I think nurses do a great job. My previous point was about cutting out the waste in the HSE and everyone in society doing a bit more, possibly for less. If you decide to work in the public sector then expect the rest of us to be upset when, generally, your wages are higher than the average in the private sector. Also working for the gov gives a level of job security that none of the rest of us have. I’d be careful calling people thick there Karolyn as no one is saying you must back to college for another 4 yrs to change career. You should accept that it is money earned in the private sector that ultimately pays for the public sector and if we’re all cutting back – why shouldn’t the government. As it is the HSE hasn’t recruited any nurses for 4-5 years. I would think that this announcement would be positive news. So rather than fight necessary changes, and, correct me if im wrong, we are only talking about your first year, embrace them. If not then you could change career, work for yourself or emigrate. What would newly qualified nurses do if the jobs moratorium wasn’t lifted? Emigrate, change career or work for agencies which currently cost the tax payer even more than hiring new employees! So a little bit of perspective should be applied. Anyone who has worked for an agency should also accept that it is not a guaranteed career path but, more likely, a temporary position.

Sorry for the long post!

Sorry 2 yrs!

@sean.. if public sector wages are so great, why not go for one yourself babe?

1)Because there’s a moratorium for recruitment in the public sector.
2)Because I’m self employed and enjoy working 18 hour days when necessary.
3)but most of all because I can work from home and spend more time with my kids.

No

Keep it real
Will you give me the name of the hospital your friend works in so I can transfer my contract because I haven’t worked anywhere that had given more than 3 days compassionate leave for the death of a parent or sibling and a day for a grandparent that lived with you!!!

Keepitreal is a troll, DO NOT FEED HIM!! Ignore!!!!

Which hospital were you in cos again I’d love to transfer my contract.

Still not prepared to mention the hospital though???