IN the accident and emergency unit in Beaumont Hospital yesterday afternoon, the jury was still out on the nurses' pay deal.
In fairness, they had not seen the detailed terms, but what they had heard failed to impress. While the new top rate of £20,3,50 was a big advance on existing rates, Mary Keogh, a staff nurse and with 13 years' experience, said. It still falls a bit short of what we were asking for. £23,000."
Her colleague, Mary Kilkenny, who is qualified 18 years, was disappointed at the failure of the unions to secure a good early retirement deal.
Nursing at 60 is not on, Mary Keogh added. "Teachers get early retirement at 55 and our job is much more physical. You can't give the same level of service to patients at 60 as you can when you are young."
There was a welcome for the proposal to make 1,200 temporary staff permanent. The two nurses and their colleagues, Hannah O'Farrell and Des Cassidy had all worked for a number of years in temporary posts.
Des, who is a qualified psychiatric nurse as well as a general nurse, was only made permanent at Beaumont a month ago, after three years of nursing. Mary Keogh has spent six of her 13 years nursing as a temp. Mary Kilkenny 10 and Hannah seven.
"I welcome temporary staff being made permanent but it's something we shouldn't have to fight for," Mary Keogh said. I was talking to a girl 10 years, temporary down the country, said Mary Kilkenny. She'll have to go for interview against somebody who may be much younger.
There was also anger about the qualifications issue. None of them could understand why some teachers being offered allowances for qualifications they did not possess under their PCW restructuring deal, while nurses were being told that their allowances for qualifications were being phased out.
Nor was there much enthusiasm for the proposal that pay for new entrants to the profession be cut by £1,000. "It's robbing Peter to pay Paul," Mary Kilkenny said.
They all felt that entry pay, at £13,822, was low enough already for people who had spent four years qualifying to do the job.
All four remain, to be convinced by their unions that this deal is worth accepting. So would they be prepared to take the alternative of industrial action?
"We're more than willing to stand up and fight, and why shouldn't we?" said Hannah O'Farrell. "We re not really getting what we asked for."