Nurses and midwives who are members of the INMO have gained the backing of Donegal County Council as they plan industrial action this week.
Donegal County Councillors have agreed to send solidarity and support to the thousands of nurses who will engage in a work stoppage at hospitals and healthcare centres across Ireland this Wednesday 30th January.
Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher told the council on Monday: “Every person in this room and in this country knows nurses, uses our health service and knows that profession. Not alone is it essential, but Ireland can’t do without it.
The Glenties area councillor she could not imagine the daily pressure nurses face under current conditions: “I can’t imagine what it is like, from the stories put out by the unions, to work in chaos every day of your life and to be expected to have the lives of people in your hands.”
Cllr Gallagher acknowledged the care and service nurses give to patients.
“I haven’t met one nurse yet that wants to be in a situation of having to go on strike because they take their profession very very seriously. They take the care of their patients as a number one objective.
“But they have no other option,” Cllr Gallagher said.
Cllr Jack Murray added his support to the motion of solidarity.
The Inishowen MD councillor said: “I think this is hugely important, there has rarely been strike action that has garnered such widespread support across the country. People understand the stress nurses are placed under.”
Irish nurses in Sydney, Australia, held a demonstration in support of striking nurses at home. Photo via Facebook: Support for Nurses, Midwives and Frontline Staff in Ireland
Cllr Murray said that it was particularly moving to see so many Irish nurses around the world, in Sydney and in London, saying ‘give us a reason to come home’.
“It would be a good assurance to nurses in Donegal that we back this motion, and say that we stand fully behind them, and we come out to the picket lines to show our support in their campaign for decent wages and working conditions,” Cllr Murray said.
The council agreed to write to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation to inform them of the support they have from the local authority.
