D o the right thing, minister, and let nurses do their jobs

AS SOMEONE who was a union official for 30 years, I would like to offer my best wishes and support to the nurses/midwives presently on strike.

We in the Prison Service walked the Dublin Road for four weeks in 1988. We won our strike for a number of reasons but there were two main reasons: 1) We had right on our side and 2) We hung together, because we knew if we didn’t we would hang separately.

I get the same sense of purpose with the nurses/midwives. There is a steely determination on their side. I hope they stay focused, determined and unified.

The ‘guilt’ complex will be the next thing we hear as certain politicians and faceless bureaucrats tell the workers how lucky they are to have a job.

Maybe if they exchanged a day in their ivory towers for a day in A&E, trying to maintain a shred of dignity for hard-pressed patients and staff, they might have a different view.

When we consider the handling of the new children’s hospital, it recalls the phrase from the Haughey era: grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented. It beggars belief this could happen in Ireland in 2019.

Expend your energies on sorting out the children’s hospital debacle and let the nurses/midwives get on with their jobs.

To the minister I say: Do the right thing. On this as on many other issues the people are leading our so-called leaders. Noel Tuohy

Portlaoise, Co Laois