Talks aimed at resolving industrial action by National Ambulance Service (NAS) staff are set to take place at the Labour Court on Thursday after invitations were issued to both management and unions.
Siptu and Unite, which between them represent about 20,000 frontline staff at the NAS are both understood to have accepted. It is also understood the HSE will attend.
The long-running dispute over pay and grading prompted a 24-hour strike by paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians which started on Tuesday morning and ended at 8am on Wednesday.
A 48-hour strike is due to take place next Tuesday morning with a 72-hour one scheduled to follow the week after.
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As Tuesday’s one day stoppage was in progress, both the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said new talks involving the two sides should take place as soon as possible.
Patient groups and senior managers at the NAS had expressed concerns about patient safety during that and any future strikes.
Union officials has insisted that the level of emergency cover being provided was enough to ensure safety. They said in the event any urgent calls were received that could not be dealt with within a safe time period, members on the picket line would step into provide additional cover.
Following the Labour Court’s intervention on Wednesday, the talks on Thursday are likely to be exploratory in nature. However, both sides will hope that enough progress can be made to ensure next week’s action can be either deferred or cancelled.
The staff are seeking a wider process to address what they say are substantial changes to work practices implemented over more than a decade.
The HSE says any pay increase outside of the national public sector pay deals need to involve further productivity or other changes.
Both management and Government have repeatedly pointed to the fact that two previous sets of proposals, in 2023 and 2025, were recommended by the unions to their members before being rejected.
The unions argue the margins involved in those ballots reflect the importance of the issue to workers who are far more qualified and are taking on far more responsibility than would have been the case 15 years ago.
They say this needs to be recognised before any further modernisation can be considered.
