IMPACT is to recommend the terms of the nurses' pay deal. Its general secretary, Mr Peter McLoone, says that while the deal "does not contain everything we expected", it was "clearly the best package that can be achieved through negotiations".
This means that all nursing unions, except the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland, have decided to recommend acceptance of the pay terms. The PNAI is expected to do so when its executive meets early next month.
Meanwhile nurse tutors have said the terms are unacceptable. They met in Dublin earlier this week and a spokesman said there would have to be a significant improvement in the top rate of £26,000 on the basic grade.
If this is not achieved selective action may be taken in several areas. The nurse tutors are a comparatively small nursing grade of about 250 people responsible for training about 4,000 student nurses. They will also be playing a key role in the transition of nurse training courses to full degree courses, which is a central element of the new PCW agreement.
Their main grievance is that they are losing their pay differential with senior nurse management grades.