Health service nightmare over but other

THE Labour Court’s Mr Fix-it Kevin Foley has found a way out of a health service nightmare that appears to get everybody off the hook.

It sounds like it’s got everything that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Health Minister Simon Harris could ask for. The spectre of three days of strike with potentially nightmarish consequences is gone and the proposals on the table are not supposed to breach the current public service pay deal. So far, the cost has not been mentioned.

When asked about the financial implications, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would not specify but said the minister would brief Cabinet on them today. It sounds great and is a long way from where the Government was last week.

But none of this means they’re all going to live happily ever after. There is still the prickly issue of the potential for knock-on claims.

None of this means they’re all going to live happily ever after