31 July 2025 

SDLP Opposition Health Spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has said the Executive is risking strike action by failing to act on nurses’ pay.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has entered a trade dispute with the Executive over its failure to implement the agreed 3.6% inflationary pay rise.

Speaking after meeting with the RCN on Thursday, South Down MLA Mr McGrath said:

“To find ourselves once again in a position where nurses are denied their rightful pay increase is nothing short of a disgrace. This 3.6% rise was agreed to help offset the cost of living, yet the Executive has failed to deliver it. The level of disrespect shown to our nurses should shame every party around that Executive table.

“Once again, nurses in Northern Ireland are out of parity with their colleagues across the UK. Is this really the value we place on our hardworking healthcare professionals?

“Having met with the RCN today, I assured them of the SDLP’s full support. We have repeatedly warned the Executive of the consequences of inaction. We called for Barnett funding to be ring-fenced for health, we urged proactive measures to secure pay awards, but time and again, this Executive has simply expected nurses to do more with less.

"There are serious questions for the lead parties of government to answer. I understand that the RCN wrote to them in June, warning them of this and received neither acknowledgement or response. One has to wonder at the busy schedules of the First and Deputy First Minister to not even be able to acknowledge the needs of our nursing staff.

“This must be resolved urgently, nurses should not have to fight or consider industrial action year after year to receive the modest pay increase they were promised. Every day the Executive withholds nurses’ hard-earned pay, anger and frustration grows and the risk of strike action becomes ever more real.”