Strong public support for nurses on picket line at South Tipperary General Hospital

Nurses are braving the bitter cold in Clonmel today outside South Tipperary General Hospital as they join the nationwide strike in support of their pay claim.

Large numbers are on picket duty on Western Road at the main entrance to the hospital.

They were joined by Independent TD Seamus Healy and Clonmel councillor Pat English.

There are 370 INMO members in the Clonmel hospital.

The strikers have been receiving strong support from the public, with passing motorists honking their horns in support.

Nurses on the picket line outside South Tipperary General Hospital

“That support is great”, said INMO spokesperson Odette O'Connor.

“It is in everyone's interest to have a safe health service. The public are our patients, everyone of us has the potential to be a patient and to use the health service”, she said during a break from picket duty.

Meanwhile another spokesperson Noelle Ahearn said they are on strike because 'enough is enough'.

She said - “We have come to a point where we will no longer be undervalued, treated poorly and subjected to working in unsafe and unhealthy environments. It is just not on any more. And we are not just doing this for nurses' sake but the sake of patients, young and old, men, women and children throughout the country who deserve a better health service than what we are able to provide at the moment”.

She said there are not enough nurses in the system because of all the student nurses who qualify this year, 70% of them will be on planes to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, the UK and the Middle East where nursing is a much more lucrative career.

“And they will have much better and safer standards and be able to do the job they were trained for”, she continued.

Large numbers on the picket line in Clonmel

She claimed that nurses had been 'fire-fighting' trying to do their job.

“We are trying to do the best we can with the resources we have. In the past we blamed the recession but presumably we are in recovery mode but we are still fire-fighting. The health service is not back in recovery mode and it never will while the status quo remains”, she remarked.

Odette O'Connor added that none of the nurses wanted to be on strike but they had no choice. “Nurses are unable to face into the conditions that they face every day”, she said, adding that nurses are resigning from the profession, rather than retiring, and that there are not enough applicants to fill the vacant posts.