Army to cover for ambulances

SOLDIERS will be on standby to provide cover during Friday’s ambulance workers strike if they are needed.

As many as 500 of the country’s 1,800 ambulance staff are set to engage in industrial action on Friday in a dispute over union recognition.

It is understood in recent days the HSE requested for the Defence Forces to be on standby to provide cover if required during this day of action.

Similar assistance was requested during the most recent bout of industrial action with the same ambulance workers in late January, but the Defence Forces personnel were required in just 12 calls then. The 500 workers involved in this dispute are members of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association which is affiliated to Psychiatric Nurses Association.

This union was set up nine years ago by former members of Siptu, which is not involved in this action, and in addition to this Friday, two further strike days are scheduled to take place.

A spokesman for the Department of Defence yesterday confirmed to the Mail that ‘following the receipt of an Aid to the Civil Authority request’ the Defence Forces will provide cover to the National Ambulance Service during Friday’s industrial action which is set to run from 7am to 5pm.

‘Defence Forces ambulances and crew will be based in the eastern and southern regions as requested by the NAS,’ the department added.

The union involved in recent weeks has called on the HSE to engage in ‘meaningful talks’ but the HSE then said ‘recognising breakaway unions has a destabilising effect on good industrial relations’.

Members involved in the January 22 action picketed depots nationwide including Galway, Donegal, Offaly, Tipperary, Dublin and Cork.