Nurses are well paid? Sorry, that’s Australia!
WHEN I saw the Irish Daily Mail headline yesterday stating ‘Nurses’ pay is not an issue... and there is no hiring problem’ I thought I had picked up an Australian newspaper by mistake.
I would question where the average salary of €51,000 for staff nurses/midwives came from. My daughter has been a staff nurse for 17 years and her pay is nothing like this. This level of pay might apply to a director of nursing are equivalent level.
The starting salary for a nurse in Ireland is €23,399, rising to €42.706. In Australia the starting salary for a nurse is between €40,000 and €43,000. Here a staff nurse has four deductions from their salary... These include two lots of USC charges, PRSI and PAYE. One nurse stated she is no worse off working three days a week than the five she use to work because of deductions.
If there are no hiring problems why is there such a shortage of nurses on wards? The INMO found that Irish nurses were overworked and caring from between 20% to 60% more than their U.K. counterparts. Many nurses are unable to feed or give fluids to patients or wash them due to lack of staff on wards.
A recent survey at Trinity College found that 78% of all under graduate nurses said they would leave Ireland for better pay and conditions abroad.
A report commissioned by the NHS in the UK looked at the number of medical staff coming from 202 countries. In September 2017, 13,016 came from Ireland and were listed as fourth in the table.
It is stated in the report that there only a limited amount of money that can be available to pay HSE staff. Fine but how come the money can be found for administration staff at four times the European average?
Also it was recently reported that there had been a 80% increase in manager positions. Obviously allocation of money for nurses and front line staff is not a priority.
JOHN FINN, Ballincollig, Co. Cork.
Brenda is spot on
I’VE just read Brenda Power’s column (Mail, Tuesday). At last a voice of reason.
As a former secondary teacher, I have always found transition year a waste year in many ways and particularly because the students lose their academic momentum as they face into the most difficult and important exam of their lives.
A year ‘free’ after they do the Leaving very would be so more advantageous. I refused to allow my children to ‘do’ transition year! In fact from my experiences as a teacher, the student needs three years to prepare for the Leaving Certificate.
I’d suggest and have suggested that all students should sit a ‘pass’ course and let those who are not academics leave and let those who are academics continue and prepare for an honours exam.
Thank you, Brenda. You’re the first I have met to agree with me.
ANNE COBURN, by email.
I’ll welcome Trump!
WITH the announcement of the upcoming visit of US president Donald Trump to our shores it is telling that the initial narrative of the hard left Labour Party, PBP and the Green Party – representing a combined 15% of the electorate – is highlighted by the liberal press, calling for mass protests.
As a member of the silent majority who would welcome the leader of the United States to our shores as the representative of the world’s greatest power and a country that has provided hundreds of thousands of jobs to Ireland and the home to many millions of our sons and daughters, I would plead and beg that an ingrained left-wing liberal media bias be at least challenged by the actual people of Ireland.
The damage that could be done by this coalition who would not know how to create a job if it hit them in the face must be answered.
The silent majority love Mr Trump’s straight talking about issues here that to date have been censored by the politically correct media and left wing politics. Their life mission now is to destroy a president freely elected by the American people. On behalf of the silent majority I wish President Trump 100,000 ‘fáilte roimh’. I would love to buy him a pint of the best Guinness when he arrives... at a secret location of course. PETER MONAHAN, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
A hello to Kate
THERE is a Portuguese proverb which says that ‘God writes straight with crooked lines.’ Well, He was certainly writing when I bought the Irish Daily Mail yesterday. For I was delighted to see Kate Kerrigan’s name at the head of a column. Kate and I know each other from the 27 years I spent living in Ballina, Co.Mayo; I also know her mother. However, the connection doesn’t end there. I bought Kate’s uncle’s house in London, long before I knew of Kate’s existence.
It was my experience of Galway hospital that decided me to move to Cork to be near the Mercy, where the doctors have saved my life three times in the past ten years due to myasthenia gravis and clots in the lungs.
Finally, I wonder if Kate and her mother have read my autobiography No Love Here – A Priest’s Journey?