Workers Party Dublin Region: full support for National Ambulance Service (NAS) industrial action
So-called pay improvements were rightly rejected by union members as insufficient and tied to preconditions that would further stretch an already understaffed service
May 12th 2026
The Workers Party Dublin Region has expressed full support for the current industrial action by the National Ambulance Service (NAS), which is a significant escalation in a multi-year dispute between approximately 2,000 SIPTU and Unite members and the HSE.
Six years ago, the Independent Review of Roles and Responsibilities showed how the ambulance service has transitioned over the last two decades from a basic transport model to a highly skilled clinical service. The role of workers in the National Ambulance Service is no longer just about driving but involves autonomous clinical decision-making. Since 2011, paramedics and EMTs have seen a massive increase in the medications they are authorized to administer and the clinical guidelines they must follow.”
Although the 2020 report recommended updating salary scales to reflect these professional qualifications, the HSE has failed to implement the recommendations. While the HSE claims to have offered pay improvements of 3–14%, these were rightly rejected by union members as insufficient and tied to preconditions that would further stretch an already understaffed service (estimated to be short by nearly 2,000 personnel).
Hollow Opposition from Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane has accused the Government of failing to deal with long-running problems. Sinn Féin are highly critical in Opposition in Dublin, but where they are actually in power, they are distinctly un-radical. In the coalition government in Northern Ireland co-administered by Sinn Féin, as of May 11, 2026, hospital doctors have rejected the Department of Health’s proposed 3.5% pay uplift, citing years of pay erosion (estimated at 20-25% in real terms since 2002). Hospital doctors across Northern Ireland have begun a collective ballot for strike action
Sinn Féin will tell you that compulsory coalition in Northern Ireland forces difficult choices on them, either that or they blame the Brits. But since at least 2025 planning committees in Belfast City Council, with significant SF representation and with no external arm-twisting, have signed off on the expansion of private facilities, such as the continued development of the Kingsbridge Private Hospital campus and other private "health hubs" which crucially undermine NHS provision.
Who can doubt that if Sinn Féin make it into a coalition government in the Dáil, they will blame everyone but themselves for the anti-worker decisions that will inevitably be made under their rule.