Staff problems at blood bank raised

Difficulties between Irish Blood Transfusion Service management in Dublin and staff in Cork will be raised at the next Oireachtas…

Difficulties between Irish Blood Transfusion Service management in Dublin and staff in Cork will be raised at the next Oireachtas Committee on Health meeting.

Ms Liz McManus TD, of Labour, said she was raising the issue because long-running tensions between the two centres were undermining the work of the IBTS.

"The breakdown in industrial relations between IBTS management in Dublin and staff at the Cork centre have been a cause of deep concern for some time. Recently, a technician at the laboratory was instructed to report directly to headquarters in Dublin and bypass management in Cork," Ms McManus said.

"A strike at the IBTS was only averted when management agreed to go to the Labour Relations Commission regarding this and other industrial relations issues in the Cork centre."

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Ms McManus said neither the Minister, Mr Martin, nor his predecessor, Mr Cowen, had demonstrated a willingness to resolve this issue. "This political failing allowed relations between management and the Cork centre to deteriorate significantly," she said.