The Government is facing a new series of daily work stoppages by nurses and midwives in hospitals around the country following the collapse last night of talks aimed at resolving their dispute over pay and conditions.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) and health service management blamed each other for the failure of the talks, which had been ongoing for the last week under the aegis of the National Implementation Body (NIB).
The executives of the two unions are to meet today to discuss an escalation of their campaign. However, INO general secretary Liam Doran said that it could be "taken as read" that there would be a swift return to work stoppages by nurses.
"We have already made the decision in principle that we will have stoppages every day nationwide. The timetable and duration of those will be discussed," he said.
Nurses are seeking the introduction of a 35-hour week and a 10.6 per cent pay increase.
Mr Doran said patients would not be disrupted as a result of the industrial action and all emergency and essential services would be covered. Management had failed to grasp a tremendous opportunity for health reform.
"We offered a greatly expanded role for nurses and midwives, exactly the agenda they have been talking about for two and a half years, but they failed, flunked the exam," he said.
Brendan Mulligan of the HSE Employers' Agency said that the unions had walked away from "a workable solution" proposed by management. "Both unions are still insisting on a commencement date for a 35-hour week and are still insisting on the pay issue being dealt with outside benchmarking," he said.
He said that the escalation of the action by nurses would have "very severe" implications for services, patients would suffer and that it was "completely unnecessary".
Prior to the talks yesterday, the unions said nurses had offered significant work practice changes. They were prepared to take on extra duties such as ordering tests for patients in A&E which would see waiting times reduced by four hours per patient.
They were also prepared to do more work in the community, including directly referring patients to consultants which would reduce admissions to hospitals.
Management offered to reduce the working week for nurses by one hour from next March on condition that this could be done on a cost-neutral basis, did not lead to a diminution of services and that the work changes could be verified.
Management also proposed a time-limited process to determine whether a further reduction in hours was achievable.
The NIB said it had thought a settlement could be found through a two-phase approach in which a specific reduction in working hours in 2008 would be followed by a second stage in which the Labour Court would have a key role.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said she was very disappointed at the outcome of the talks. Further industrial action was "regrettable and unhelpful".
She said she supported the work changes proposed by the unions, but these should be discussed with other health service groups in a forum established recently by the Government.