IMPACT has called for a total rethink of health minister James Reilly’s plans for universal health insurance (UHI). The union says the funding model outlined in a draft white paper, which was discussed at the cabinet health sub-committee last week, would “place a universal financial burden on families with no guarantee of universal access to healthcare.”

Four representatives from each of IMPACT’s local government branches are to be invited to a seminar on the future of local government, which is being organised by the union in advance of the local elections.

A panel of four experts has been given until the end of March to report on ways to breach the impasse over the Irish Airline Superannuation Scheme (IASS), which covers workers in Aer Lingus and the Dublin and Shannon airport authorities. IMPACT has agreed to engage constructively with the group.

New legislation to protect workplace whistleblowers – people who reveal fraudulent or other unlawful behaviour – has been strengthened with measures to prevent employers sacking staff who blow the whistle.

IMPACT has told civil service management it will not countenance a Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) proposal that civil servants should pay €437 if they appeal their PMDS performance management outcome. DEPR says the charge would be refundable if the appeal was upheld.

An IMPACT-supported production was honoured at the Irish Times theatre awards last month. Anu Productions received the prestigious Judges Special Award for commemorating the 1913 Dublin Lockout by “using the city of Dublin as their set, and their reconfiguration of the audience as citizens.”