Nurses are to embark on work stoppages in hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country for periods of up to three hours as part of a rolling escalation of their campaign of industrial action for improved pay and conditions.
Nurses in 22 hospitals and mental health services will stop work for one hour tomorrow.
The duration of the work stoppages is to be increased to two hours next Tuesday and Wednesday with a series of three-hour stoppages planned for Friday of next week.
The Health Service Executive last night said the planned escalation would lead to a significantly higher level of cancellations of procedures in hospitals.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said the tactics being pursued by the nursing unions were unfair to patients, public sector workers and taxpayers.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation said yesterday that a special conference to be held on May 10th could consider further escalation of the campaign.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said that this could involve a ban on overtime.
All emergency and essential services for patients would be maintained during the course of the work stoppages, he said.
The INO and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association are seeking a 35-hour working week and a 10.6 per cent pay increase.
Talks between the unions and health service management broke down on Tuesday night.
Mr Doran said both unions had expressed complete frustration at the failure of the employers "to grasp the opportunities offered by the expansion of the role of the nurse which they had put forward in the recent negotiations". He said that obviously the unions "had not applied enough pressure on employers to bring them to the table with a mindset to resolve this dispute".
"The HSE did not move one iota and will not apply the same creativity to nurse and midwife pay as they have to other groups in the public service," he said.
Mr Doran said the unions were not oblivious to the voting power of 45,000 nurses.
General secretary of the PNA Des Kavanagh said employers were seeking to use patients in the current battle with the Government.
The HSE in a statement said it was extremely regrettable that nurses had chosen to significantly escalate their action when there was a workable way forward presented at the talks.
It said nurses would have pay docked for the planned stoppages.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said the inevitable consequences of the action, even before procedures had to be cancelled, would be to cause obvious worry and distress for patients and their families.
"Other public sector workers who have signed up for Towards 2016 and Benchmarking II, rightly expect the Government to keep to its side of the bargain by not allowing major special deals for others.
"Taxpayers, who pay for the public sector wage bill agreed in Towards 2016, will be deeply concerned at any unravelling of public sector pay policy."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said nurses had been fair in their negotiations over recent days.
"They have pointed out that there are a lot of flexibilities, a lot of productivity that they can give to the system which will ultimately bring this to a cost-free basis, or as near as they can to a cost-free basis. But the problem is, and it is a problem for everybody now, is that it can't be done in a short period. And that is the difficulty," he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that if elected to government the next minister for health would be mandated to act with flexibility and creativity in relation to the nursing dispute.
He also said he would change the benchmarking process.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health has forecast that it would cost nearly € 550 million per year to introduce a 35-hour working week across the wider health service.
Ms Harney yesterday provided the Cabinet with projections on the cost implications of reducing the working week for nurses, non-nursing staff and non-consultant doctors in the health service.
Other unions such as Siptu have signalled that if the Government agrees to these claims they will seek similar arrangements for their members.
However, the nursing unions have said that they would be prepared to offer work practice changes and the introduction of expanded roles for nurses in return for the shorter week.
The Department of Health document also projects that it would cost a further €144 million to provide for the introduction of a 35-hour week for non-nursing staff in the health service.
The department's document also maintains that it would cost an additional €166 million to fund the introduction of a 35-hour week for non-consultant doctors.
The document says the estimates for nursing and non-nursing staff are based on flat rates of pay.
The document also states that a shorter week would generate other costs in the health sector and could also trigger increases in health insurance charges.
Stoppages: Medical centres affected tomorrow
Hospital and other medical centres which will will be affected by work stoppages tomorrow from 11am to noon are:
Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe
East Galway mental health services
Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar
Áras Attracta, Castlebar
Mayo mental health services
Cork University and St Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital
South Lee mental health services
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda
Mid-West Regional Hospital, Limerick
Limerick mental health services
St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown
Wicklow mental health services
Mater Hospital, Dublin
Dublin North-Central mental health services
St Vincent's, Fairview/Dept of Psychiatry, Mater
Our Lady's Hospital, Navan
Meath mental health services
Tralee General Hospital
North Kerry mental health services
Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore
Offaly mental health services
Wexford General Hospital
Wexford mental health services