Galway perfusionists frustrated by HSE refusal to implement the Labour Court recommendation
Galway perfusionists are preparing for an additional five days of industrial action next week after claiming the Minister said there is “no basis” for resolutory talks about pay scales.
However, the Minister’s office has denied this saying it is untrue he told Fórsa there is ‘no basis for any talks on the Public Service Agreement,’ and has ‘pulled out’ of the agreement”.
Fórsa trade union representative Michael Kerrigan told the Irish Independent that perfusionists will once again come out of the surgery room in protest from Thursday, July 2 to Wednesday July 8. It is expected that other perfusionists around Ireland will join them for this demonstration.
The protestors are seeking a reinstatement of a pay link between perfusionists and medical scientists, which the HSE unlinked in 2024.
Perfusionists are highly specialised healthcare workers who monitor and control heart and lung function during heart surgery. There are only 25 in Ireland, with five based at Galway University Hospital.
UHG perfusionists demonstrated outside the hospital earlier in June over the HSE’s refusal to implement the Labour Court recommendation to reinstate the pay scaling.
The lack of engagement after the Labour Court decision from the HSE has had a “huge effect” on the staff, Denise Gonoud, the Chief Clinical Perfusionist at in Galway University Hospital told the Irish Independent. The HSE had not engaged further with the group since its refusal.
An agreement was made under the Public Service Agreement, which sets pay terms for the sector, and expires June 30, to hold off on industrial action given an expectation to commence resolutory talks the first week of July.
“It’s a much larger group, hundreds of thousands of workers are impacted the public service agreement across different sectors and different unions. As part of that agreement, which is two and a half years old, is that there would be no industrial action in terms of pay outside of our own industrial mechanisms in the state,” Mr Kerrigan said.
However, Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation Minister Jack Chambers told Fórsa there is “no basis for any talks on the Public Service Agreement,” and has “pulled out” of the agreement, Mr Kerrigan claimed to the Irish Independent.
“The Minister and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have been clear that they don’t believe there’s basis for talks, so if there’s no basis for talks, there’s no chance of a resolution on this dispute, so it’s restarting again next week.”
The time and location of the demonstrations have not been announced yet.
However the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have denied this.
In a statment to the Irish Independent it said: It is categorically untrue to state that the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation has “told Fórsa there is ‘no basis for any talks on the Public Service Agreement,’ and has ‘pulled out’ of the agreement”.
“The Minister’s officials met with ICTU and representative staff associations to commence exploratory discussions last week. Officials made clear that they are available for intensive engagement with a view to reaching a successor agreement and have sought to arrange further engagement with Unions on this basis.
“Both sides raised issues to be discussed. We have not yet had the opportunity to discuss these in any detail. This is a necessary phase to reaching any agreement.
“It was agreed between the parties that industrial action planned by perfusionist members of Fórsa would be paused on the basis that the Labour Court recommendation on the matter would form part of discussion on a successor public service pay agreement. Official have sought further discussions on a successor public service pay agreement and will continue to do so. As such, it is not clear the basis on which this industrial action is taking place.”
This article was amended on June 26, 2026 at 1.42 pm to include a statement from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and to update the headline.