Nurses in hospital emergency departments have voted to accept new proposals aimed at tackling overcrowding.
Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation backed the deal by 71 per cent to 29 per cent.
The proposals were agreed last month in talks with health service management at the Workplace Relations Commission in an attempt to avert threatened strikes in emergency departments.
The deal involves new escalation protocols to be put in place by hospital management when overcrowding reached a certain level.
It also provides for the establishment of promotional positions for nurses as well as an additional two days annual leave in 2016 and 2017 in lieu of missed breaks.
INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the dispute was never about nurses' terms and conditions but rather about patient care.
However, he said the long-term solution to emergency department overcrowding was the provision of greater bed capacity in hospitals.
