asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied) alleging failure by the District Hospital, Gorey, County Wexford, to sanction on-call and stand-by allowance for nurses on ambulance duty and that these nurses will refuse to be on call from 1st December next unless the matter is satisfactorily resolved; and the steps his Department are taking to prevent such action and to resolve the matter satisfactorily.

I have seen the report mentioned and I would like to point out that it is not a matter of my Department refusing to sanction allowances for nurses called in off-duty time for emergency ambulance work. For such work there are arrangements to compensate staff either by stand-by allowances with a fee per call or by a higher fee per call without stand-by allowance. It is standard practice, and the Irish Nurses' Organisation have agreed in principle, that where the number of emergency calls are few, the system of higher fee per call without stand-by allowance should operate. I understand the number of emergency ambulance calls in the case of Gorey district hospital are very few and there would seem to be no justification for paying stand-by allowances.