Our Strategic Alliance General Secretary Des Kavanagh has after several months of negotiations, secured in writing an assurance from the HSE that all non-core pay is protected under the Croke Park deal. In light of Minister Harney's comments some months back when she stated that non-core pay is up for grabs, this comes as welcome news for all frontline professionals.

We have also decided to ballot our membership on the Croke Park deal and ballot papers will be forwarded to all members in the coming days. Management continue to refuse to engage with us quoting our exclusion from the Croke Park deal as the reason, as stated previously, we will ballot our membership on the deal in the coming days and will deal with the issue of recognition after the result of the ballot.