IMPACT trade union has agreed to enter high level negotiations on the issues raised in its health service industrial dispute on behalf of health workers in Cork and across the country.

The new talks process was offered by senior HSE management at a meeting in Dublin earlier this week. The union says that while it will enter these talks, its industrial action will remain in place until tangible improvements emerge.

Following the meeting, IMPACT national secretary Kevin Callinan welcomed the development but said the union's campaign against cuts in staff and services would continue. "It would be a welcome development if the HSE is prepared to deal seriously with the issues and improve consultation with staff who are trying to deliver services in hospitals and communities. We will enter discussions in good faith, but we need to see concrete changes before suspending the industrial action that has bought the HSE to the negotiation table," he said.

Mr Callinan said the union was seeking new HSE staffing policies and practices that ensure existing service provision as well as promised service improvements in areas like primary care, elder care, disability, and mental health services. The union is also demanding that management honour over 40 existing agreements on working conditions, which are currently being breached, and an end to the substitution of permanent staff with costly agency workers.

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