Do you support the nurses strike or do you think they are paid a good enough wage? Are they letting their patients down? Is it fair to reward one group only after the Croke Park agreement was signed and agreed on? What about all the other frontline staff?

We showed our support by delivering soup and sandwiches to them. Fair play to them but if they get a slice of the pie everyone else will want one too.

Given the very long hours and working conditions some of them have to work in, I fully support the strike. A friend of mine is a nurse in Galway and he's been known to work a 36 hour shift on occasion, with just an hours break. He's often been given a ward of approx 10 patients to look after and would have to stay on to cover staff storages sometimes. These are just some examples he's told me.

Even thought I disagree with protesters turning up at Simon Harris' home yesterday afternoon, it's a clear indication that this country has had enough of this government and the health service.

I fully support the newer nurses getting a pay rise but not for the long term. My brother is a psychiatric nurse on 52000 euro. Whenever he works a 12 hour overtime shift on a Sunday (he calls it a super Sunday) he earns over 700 euro. No bad for a nurse.

I wish to publicly thank them for the wonderful work they do .If like me you have relied on them for nursing five family members that have passed .I thank you .I give back myself by being a bone marrow donor .These nurses care for people we love .Lets not renege on them now .

They should scrap these special pay days, Saturday and Sunday are no different to Monday to Friday.

They shouldn't get extra pay for Saturday or Sunday - it doesn't make sense for the type of work they do.
And they are expected to do shift work.
New nurses in the system shouldn't be discriminated against with shite conditions compared to older colleagues.
They should be equalizing the system at this stage.
I don't think all nurses are great, some are some are incompetent, everything they get should be benchmarked with productivity.

When j accompanied my old neighbour to hospital this young male nurse acted like he knew everything, turned out everything he had done had to be repeated by an older female nurse, you don't get a pay grade for just turning up and singing your own praises !
You actually have to be good at your job and recognised as such.
As for people complaining outside minister Harris's home - so ? Is he pointing to a law that protest is only allowed in certain places ?
The problem of course is it will mean every minister junior minister will get police protection even if they don't need it and this when there isn't enough police resources.
It's a bit like this gov overpaying on a building project and their solution is feck half a million at an account firm to confirm how they overspend good boys nd then cut spending everywhere else around the country ...
Oh They'll have to spend 2 million on accountants telking them where to make the cuts.
The people working in these accountant firms are deeply enmeshed in every money racket going on .

Shift work isn't the only issue though. It's the insanely long hours some of them have to work. One regular shift pattern I'm aware of is a week of 12 hour shifts 8am-8pm / 8pm - 8am Monday to Sunday and then the following week off.

Fair point made about that incompetent nurse but don't tar all of them with the same brush. They're not all like that.

While the group that showed up at Simon Harris' home yesterday have every right to protest, his private home was not the place to so stage it. His wife and newborn child were inside. I don't think he's going to pull a Joan Burton and look to press charges.

The IMNO have distanced themselves from that protest also. Given this health minister was briefed twice about the spiralling costs of the new Children's hospital and the no confidence motions starting to roll in, I think his days in office are numbered.

We get paid double time on Sundays and bank holidays. Noone ever takes a Sunday off. It makes a BIG difference in the wage packet. Our shifts and conditions are similar to nurses.

Before tax.

He's either been qualified for a very long time or he's working via an agency, or both.

Also, "no bad for a nurse" says what you really think of nursing as a profession.

I want the HSE abolished like fine Gael and varadker and Harris and all of the rest of them said they would and I want all of the career bureaucrats fired without pension or redundancy or any accountancy firm report and and with all of the money they save I want universal healthcare for all like they promised and fair pay for all frontline staff.

Strike has been suspended.

I earn more than your brother for a much more pointless job. The medical profession in general need to be rebenchmarked to respectable rates.

“Not bad for a nurse”? Really?

Agreed. We'll be a long time waiting for all of that though.

After the next election