You could win €100 by completing our website survey. The current version of IMPACT’s website is almost two years old. The site attracts a very high volume of traffic and the number of visitors keeps growing.

We will soon be introducing more improvements. But, before we do, we want to hear your views. So we’re inviting users of the site to take part in a short survey – it takes less than five minutes to complete – to find out what you think of the website’s design, usefulness and ease of navigation.

All those who complete the survey will be entered into a draw and one lucky participant will win €100. Take the survey HERE.

Only one entry per person is allowed. Multiple entries will be not be entered into the draw.

Health spending fell more in Ireland than in any other European country between 2008 and 2011, with cuts of more than €2.7 billion and 12,000 fewer HSE staff, according to new research.

The Trinity College report on health spending and performance says that the health system managed to do more with less until 2012. But now there are “diminishing returns from crude cuts,” which means “the system has had no choice but to do less with less,” according to health expert Dr Sara Burke, who is one of the report’s authors.

Spending reductions were achieved through significant cuts to staff and pay, reducing professionals' fees, better deals with pharmaceutical companies and more flexible working arrangements facilitated by the Croke Park agreement. But since November 2012, the number or people waiting six and 12 months for treatment has trebled.

The research, carried out by Trinity College’s Resilience Project into the impact of the economic crisis, also found that some of the savings were achieved by transferring the cost of care onto service users through increased charges for prescriptions and hospital services. It said this hit the oldest and sickest most.

Despite improvements in health service management, Dr Burke questioned the system’s ability to implement the current reform programme. “The change process, in terms of hospital groups and divisional directorates, is biting on the ground but with confusion, uncertainty and a lack of clarity, timeliness and communication. This is inhibiting the pace of change, the confidence managers feel about it, and their ability to bring others along,” she said.

She said  differences between the departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform may put the sustainability of the public health system in jeopardy if more money is taken out of health in the year ahead. 

The expert panel appointed to seek a resolution to the dispute over the Irish Aviation Superannuation Scheme (IASS) is to continue its work after making a preliminary progress report earlier this week.

The group, which includes former IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone, said it had held productive meetings with unions, Aer Lingus and the Dublin and Shannon airport authorities. It has also met representatives of deferred members and pensioners.

The expert panel said it had identified the extent of agreement and difference on relevant issues in a complex dispute. It will now move on to explore “the scope for progress between the parties.”

Meanwhile, IMPACT has strongly criticised Aer Lingus chief executive Christophe Mueller’s €1.5 million pay and bonus package.  In a statement, the union said the generous package was “insulting to staff who are likely to be facing a substantial cut in their retirement incomes on top of a decision by the company to slash an agreed staff gainsharing payment by up to 80%.”

In a letter published in the Irish Independent on Monday, IMPACT cabin crew member Killian Brennan said it was an obvious injustice that Mueller had “trousered €1.5 million while he expects his workers to endure further cuts.”

Local authority staff who were previously denied access to engineering posts despite obtaining the relevant qualifications will at last be allowed to compete after a successful IMPACT campaign.  They had previously been denied access to the posts on the grounds that they got their relevant experience prior to qualification.

Read the relevant correspondence HERE.

A range of top speakers is being finalised for IMPACT’s seminar on the future of local government, which takes place in Dublin on 28^th April. Local government minister Phil Hogan will open the event and other confirmed speakers include Dublin city manager Owen Keegan, Joe Finnerty of University College Cork, Mike Allen of Focus Ireland, Jude Devins of the Local Authority Members’ Association and Mark Callanan of the Institute of Public Administration. Fingal county council manager Paul Reid will also speak.

Four representatives from each of IMPACT’s local government branches are being invited to attend the event, which is being organised in advance of the local elections. The seminar will examine changes in local authority structures and responsibilities and explore the challenges for local government in the decades ahead.

The seminar takes place after a significant year, which saw the publication of the Local Government Bill. The legislation heralds the abolition of town councils, mergers of other authorities, and a massive cull in the numbers of elected councilors. Local authority functions have also been diminished through the creation of Irish Water, the removal of driving licence renewals, and the privatisation of Dublin’s waste services.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan has written to branches in the union’s Local Government and Municipal Employees’ divisions setting out details of the seminar.

Students from Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, county Limerick have won the best overall student video award at the inaugural Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ annual student video awards.

The initiative was launched last October as part of the IMPACT-supported Youth Connect project, which introduces school children to trade union and workplace issues through school visits and projects. It’s part of a new module on the struggle for decent work and the lessons of the Lockout centenary.

The awards were presented last week at a special screening in Dublin’s Savoy Cinema. The MC for the event was Love/Hate actor Aaron Heffernan. The prize for the winning team is a five-day trip to New York. Coláiste Chiaráin also won in the best acting category. The other winners were:

You can view all of the winning video entries HERE.

An IMPACT charity cycle ride from Limerick to Killarney is to raise funds for cancer research and awareness next month. Branches are being invited to give financial support to the event or sponsor their own cyclists who take part.

The cycle ride will depart from Limerick City at 8am on Wednesday 14^th May and will end at the IMPACT biennial conference venue in Killarney that afternoon. This is the fourth charity cycle to be organised to coincide with IMPACT conference. The three previous events have raised almost €60,000 for local and national charities.

Members are invited either to complete the full journey or do a few miles along the way. Groups can share the same bike and do a few miles each.

Contact Dessie Robinson or Eamonn Donnelly at 01-817-1524 or stobin@impact.ie for more information.

Ireland urgently needs to establish a large and robust investment vehicle capable of initiating major projects and generating significant numbers of new jobs. That was the message from Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ general secretary David Begg at last week’s European Commission’s Dublin conference Post-troika: What next for Ireland?

Begg told delegates that, in the short-term, Ireland needs jobs and growth. “In the long-term we need a wholly new economic and social model. Recovery here is far from certain and remains highly contingent on developments in Europe. So in the short-term we should ultilise those levers over which we have control and create an investment vehicle with the capacity to kick start major infrastructural projects, generate jobs and boost growth. In the process, we could seriously enhance national competitiveness by upgrading our skills base and our infrastructure,” he said.

He said Ireland needed to “reimagine and rebuild ourselves along the lines of the successful northern European economies – the Nordic countries – and bring to an end our propensity to plunge into crisis every few decades.”

Unions

Separately, Mr Begg has said the Irish trade union movement must begin to reorganise and rebuild if it is to “recapture ground lost” during the years of crisis and the domination of market ideology.  Delivering a talk as part of the People’s College lecture series, he questioned whether the structure of the union movement allowed unions to deliver on core promises.

“At this point in time unions must adopt a defensive posture. Around the world, union organisations face hostility and, indeed, questioning of their relevance and very right to exist. This stems primarily from the free market ideology that has dominated economic and political life over recent decades.

“That trend has been exacerbated in the current crisis, where we have seen a determined effort to unwind all advances made by working people and undermine the role of trade unions. But that will not always be the case and we need to begin the process of reorganisation and rebuilding that is a necessary precursor to recapturing that lost ground in post-troika Ireland,” he said.

Since 2012 IMPACT's developing world fund has been supporting the Irish charity Nurture Africa, which provides health care and education for orphans and children affected by HIV-AIDS in Uganda. The organisation also provides employment and health education programmes in the communities where these children live. As part of its support, IMPACT has part-funded a limited number of members who take part in Nurture Africa volunteer programmes.

There are five places available to IMPACT members in 2014. This is a great opportunity to use your skills and help local communities in Uganda. Two-week placements are available in July, August and October. IMPACT covers your individual fundraising target of €1,500. You just need to pay for your flight and vaccinations.

Nurture Africa took four volunteers to Uganda in November 2013. In this short film they tell the story of their visit and what it meant to them. Brian Furey, Ed Walsh, Mary Capliss and John Cloughley talk about their experience of Nurture Africa's work and their contact with communities in Uganda.

If you’re interested in taking part in any of the placements scheduled for July, August or October visit the Nurture Africa website or send an email to project coordinator Kevin Murphy, or call Kevin at 01-542-4177

A public demonstration will take place at Dublin City Hall at 5pm on Monday 7^th April  to protest against HSE plans to remove Dublin ambulance services from the Dublin fire brigade. IMPACT says the proposal is unnecessary given the excellent and efficient service already provided by the fire service.

The demo will be followed by an extraordinary general meeting in Liberty Hall. Firefighters will attend in uniform and all IMPACT members are being asked to support the protest, which the union has organised with Siptu.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said the Dublin ambulance service operates on less than 10% of the national service budget yet responds to 40% of calls. “That’s outstanding efficiency for a service delivered by dedicated men and women who do an excellent job. They face an uphill task every day, including the risk of assault and long delays at A&E departments,” he said.

Peter said the protest was an opportunity for firefighters, and their supporters in trade unions and the community, to express their pride in the service – and their determination that it will be maintained.

The Labour Court has said it will not award backdated incremental credit in cases where long-term acting positions are regularised.

In a case concerning an IMPACT member whose position was regularised after they had acted up in a grade VIII position for almost nine years, the Court strongly criticised the HSE’s “wholly inconsistent” approach to paying incremental credit. But it said it had “no option” but to reject claims for incremental credit because the Haddington Road agreement on regularisation of acting positions was clear that it should be done on a cost-neutral basis.

The Court said HSE inconsistencies in allowing or refusing incremental credit on appointment to permanent posts “undermine management’s credibility on these issues and bring the entire process into disrepute.” It recommended national-level discussions to agree a mechanism “to ensure that such practices cease with immediate effect.”

It also reprimanded the HSE for failing to use established dispute resolution procedures.

Meanwhile, IMPACT has warned local government management about its slow progress on regularising long-term acting posts. It also criticised some local authorities for saying they intend to terminate long-term acting posts in advance of agreement, and advised IMPACT branches not to agree the termination of any acting allowances in advance of national agreement on the matter.

In a letter to the Local Government Management Agency, IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan called on national management to ensure that no acting allowances were terminated until an agreed process is completed. He said management had agreed to establish a national review of local outcomes before they are implemented but, despite requests, the employers had not yet done it.

IMPACT moved quickly to expose the risks inherent in health minister James Reilly’s plans for universal health insurance after he published a white paper on the proposals on Wednesday (2^nd April).

The union expressed its disappointment at the minister’s determination to press ahead with a ‘competing private insurers’ model and criticised the restrictive consultation process he outlined. IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell again outlined the union’s fears in a letter published in today’s Irish Times.

She said the proposed scheme was fundamentally flawed. “It will place an immediate financial burden on families, and it has been produced without any meaningful consultation process. The consultation is restricted to what this competing insurers model will look like. There is no consultation taking place on any other options, such as those recommended in the 2012 IMPACT-commissioned report by Dr Jane Pillinger, The Future of Healthcare in Ireland.”

The union has urged the Government to evaluate an alternative ‘single-payer’ social insurance model like those used in France, Germany and Nordic countries. Louise said: “Families will be required by law to have health insurance, but there is a real risk that this will be an impossible financial burden from the very start, particularly for the growing number of people without health insurance who don’t qualify for a medical card. This group will be compelled to purchase health insurance for every member of their family, unlike the Dutch insurance model, previously lauded by the minister, where children are insured for free.”

IMPACT is now consulting with other health unions on the best approach to the official consultation process, which closes on 25^th May.

Read our article from the latest edition IMPACT’s Work & Life magazine.

IMPACT has welcomed a Government decision to extend the retirement grace period, set out in the Haddington Road agreement, until 30^th June 2015.

This means that public servants who retire before then will have their pensions based on their pay and incremental status at 30^th June 2013 – the day before temporary pay reductions were introduced for staff earning over €65,000, along with increment deferrals for many others.

IMPACT and other unions have been pressing for the extension of the grace period – initially set at August 2014 – ever since the Haddington Road deal came into force.

Unless there is a further extension, public servants who retire after June 2015 will have their pension calculations based on their salary and incremental position at the time of retirement.

Driver testers throughout the country say they were warmly supported by members of the public when they took to the picket lines for a half-day strike on Wednesday (2^nd April) in a dispute over outsourcing. The union says that further industrial action remains a possibility if management continues its refusal to engage on the issues in dispute.

IMPACT official Denis Rohan said: “While it is regrettable we have to go to such lengths to make our feelings known to management, driver testers have shown they are prepared to take a stand when pushed too far. We are anxious to find a resolution to this issue but not at the expense of handing our work over to contractors.”