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Speaking at Mater Hospital in Dublin, the head of the main
public employees union, Forsa, blamed the government for failing
to address the pay demands of workers.
“The government needs to respond to our members today, right
across the country,” said Kevin Callinan, Forsa’s general
secretary. “The struggles they’re having with the cost of
living, the sense of a breach of trust that’s happened with the
Department of Public Expenditure. They’re the issues that need
to be faced up to by the government now.”
Consumer price inflation accelerated to 4.1% in the 12 months
through September, the highest rate since January 2024,
Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said last week. Housing
costs jumped 9.5% in the period and transportation expenses rose
7.5%.
Conor Carroll was on the picket line Wednesday at St. Michael’s
Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, a coastal town south of Dublin. The
hospital porter said that the dispute was all about the cost of
living.
“Every time you go to the supermarket you feel it,” Carroll told
The Irish Times. “Everything’s gone up, even the cost of eating.
And whatever you’re earning doesn’t feel like enough these
days.”
The government had tried to head off the strike by highlighting
its commitment to put an additional 1.2 billion euros ($1.34
billion) into public sector pay.
Martin said Wednesday that he was open to being an “honest
broker” to resolve the pay dispute.
The government’s budget decisions provided “a very strong
foundation” for public service pay talks, he said, adding that
he detected “goodwill all round.”
“I think the foundations are there for a very substantive
engagement between unions and government, and we certainly will
be doing everything we possibly can,” Martin said.
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