Alliance Health spokesperson Paula Bradshaw MLA has welcomed the announcement nurses will not lose pay from strikes over safe staffing.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy announced today (Tuesday) £1.6 million would be made available to health staff, to ensure they did not suffer a financial loss as a result of the strike action held earlier this year.

“The context of Brexit had seen the cost of living rise dramatically and nurses reliant on fixed incomes were outrageously being left behind,” said South Belfast MLA Ms Bradshaw.

“This was exacerbated by the failure to cap agency pay in Northern Ireland. Indeed, in the context, it is remarkable nurses remained patient for so long. What is more, the nurses’ strikes were in fact fundamentally about safe staffing. We can see now just how justified that case was.

“Therefore it is completely right and proper nurses, who kept working in the most difficult of circumstances even before the current public health crisis, are assured they will not lose pay over strikes they should not ever have had to go on to address the outstanding issues.

“The nurses were victims of political inaction. Therefore I welcome no pay will be lost, and it should never come to this again.”