Nurse’s pay: Michelle O’Neill saying one thing in public but something very different in government…

Lots of controversy around the first strike called by the RCN in over 100 years of their existence. Messages of solidarity have come in from all over the political spectrum, but I was struck by this very personal one from Michelle O’Neill our last Health Minister:

Nurses and all of our health care staff are the backbone of our health service.

They deserve to work within safe staffing levels and with a proper pay deal. @sinnfeinireland supports the unprecedented decision of the nurses today pic.twitter.com/GdxFSYPVwv

— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) November 7, 2019

One of the issues that the Agenda for Change (AfC) arrangement creates differentials in pay in different parts of the UK that has seen nurses pay in Northern Ireland fall behind their counterparts in Britain.

It’s particularly galling to staff because the extreme shortages (there are currently 3,000 vacancies) are being filled in some  places with agency nurses from England and Scotland who are paid at much higher rates of pay.

Politically, however none of our parties are blameless. Although AfC came in under a DUP minister, it had to be endorsed by the five party Executive. But we know from the Pay Review Body Report in 2017 that Mrs O’Neill continued to endorse these arrangements.

In a letter written in August 2016 as Health Minister Ms O’Neill approved the pay cap under these arrangements. She writes that that two-party (ie, Sinn Féin and the DUP):

“the NI Executive has endorsed the principle of adherence to the UK government’s public sector pay policy and, therefore, any proposals will be constrained by HM Treasury’s call for future pay restraint.”

Saying one thing and doing another is an occupational hazard for politicians in a rapidly moving environment. But it is rare to find an example of such a 180 degree turn. More importantly, hers were the last ministerial hands on these decisions

She’s also the one who triggered the 2017 Assembly elections and the one who refuses to return.

As I noted on Nolan this morning, with no Stormont the nurses’s legitimate and just demands will meet with the cold hard wall of an absentee Executive that abides and waits Sinn Féin’s decision as to when it will resume its duties there.