Republican News · Thursday 14 March 2002

Back the nurses

Accident & Emergency Department nurses are to be congratulated for their industrial action on Wednesday highlighting the disgrace of A&E services in hospitals throughout the 26 Counties.

The gall of health board spokespersons in slagging off the nurses for taking their action is breathtaking. Phrases such as "plotting the way ahead" and the promise of a "review" are a poor cover for what is an obvious failure of long standing.

yone unfortunate enough to have had need of A&E services in recent years or who has visited A&E departments with relatives or friends knows what a disgrace those departments have become. It is difficult to witness a sick or injured loved one wait for many hours to receive attention or be dumped on a trolley for want of a bed for days at a time. Nurses have to work in these appalling conditions and daily bear the brunt of people's frustration at the inadequate service provided.

But the public are no fools. Nobody blames the nurses for the crisis. Successive Ministers for Health have presided over disgracefully underfunded and badly organised A&E services. People recognise that the nurses have only taken their limited industrial action out of frustration at the inaction on change.

For all our sakes, the nursing unions should refuse to back down until major commitments are received. We are all potential patients and while none of us relish the thought of ending up in hospital, we would at least like to be reasssured that our condition will not be aggravateded by the A&E experience.

Neutrality further violated

News has emerged this week that the 26-County Army has sent Irish soldiers (three officers and nearly 50 soldiers) to take part in joint NATO/Partnership for Peace military manoeuvres with 24 other countries.

They are taking part in a two-week "STRONG RESOLVE 02" NATO exercise, the culmination of four years of training to test NATO's ability to simultaneously respond to two types of crisis in two different areas.

When the 26 Counties joined the Partnership for Peace, the government stated that the public and the Dáil would be kept informed as to the extent of military participation in PfP. The Irish public was told that their armed forces would have nothing to do with NATO. The opposite is obviously the case as we can see from the secrecy that has surrounded Irish participation in these joint manoeuvres.

This is just another step away from Irish military neutrality.