INMO seeking review of Lanesdowne Road Agreement and restoration of pay levels

"The reality is that nursing and midwifery faces absolutely unique challenges which management cannot address via a collective agreement running right across the public service," INMO General Secretary Liam Doran told delegates.

"The Lanesdowne Road Agreement needs review. In its current form it is not tenable, it is not sustainable, it is not feasible, it is not reasonable and it is never going to deliver the nursing and midwifery quantum that is required to deliver safe care. It has to be revisited," he said.

He said the INMO would face challenges in its attempts to having working time reduced to a 37 hour week. Mr Doran also said the INMO will want the changing role of nurses recognised, along with the unique challenges facing the sector.

"The nurse of today and the brilliant graduates who come out in the next year or two, they are very different professionals. We need that measured, recognised and valued," he said.

"Management cannot expect of us to grow and expand and fill every crack in the system they have created and stood over without at some stage saying 'yes, you're worth more now than how we valued you in the past'," he said.

"That campaign has got to start now. We may have friends along the way, we may not get friends along the way, but one way or the other we're right, they're all wrong and we want our money, Mr Doran said.

Addressing delegates for the last time as INMO President, Claire Mahon told members that nurses had suffered austerity cutbacks and "a very negative media portrayal" in recent years.

"The enormous role we have played in rescuing our nation must be acknowledged. We deserve to have all of our rights, working conditions and salaries reinstated," Ms Mahon said.

"That is why the coming months will see the INMO demand accelerated restoration of the savage pay cuts, and reduction in the pension levies imposed in recent years. We want, and we will not rest until we have, a 37 hour week, for nurses and midwives across this country.

"We will drive these campaigns, not just because it is our right, as our economy grows, but also because it is the only way that our health service will have a supply of nurses and midwives to meet its needs. Let everyone understand, and I mean everyone, that there is a crisis with regard to recruiting and retaining nurses and midwives in this country," Ms Mahon said.

"This will not be solved by tinkering at the edges of the issues of pay, workload and working hours. It will only be solved by government first realising there is a crisis, second government and health employers sitting down with the INMO, and agreeing initiatives to address this crisis and, finally, definitive actions, which involve pay increases and staffing improvements, that will arrest this crisis," she said.

Ms Mahon also accused some hospital management of being "less than engaged and lethargic" about tackling the overcrowding issues in emergency departments, adding that the INMO would never support the practice of alleviating the problem with extra beds and trolleys in inpatient wards.

"In that regard the ED Agreement is not a substitute for the additional 1,500 acute beds, required across the country, and the 2,000 long term/traditional care beds required to deal with demand and our aging population," she said.