"Radical action" to begin reforming the health service has been sought by the Irish Nurses' Organisation in a pre-Budget submission.
The INO's main demands include the immediate introduction of a 35-hour week for nurses, and the creation of 10,000 new nursing and midwifery posts over the next seven years.
The union's general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, said short-term economic difficulties must not be allowed "to prevent ordinary people maintaining and improving their standard of living".
It was obvious, he said, that people felt the health service was inadequate and required crisis management.
"We call upon the Minister to commence radical action in this Budget by allocating resources to implement the many short and medium term initiatives we propose," he said.
The INO says it is seeking a "two-level response" from Mr McCreevy, the first involving immediate measures to deal with recruitment and retention of staff.
These include an increased starting salary for newly-qualified nurses of €25,997, a standard 35-hour week, and the introduction of a Dublin "weighting allowance" of at €4,000, payable to all nurses and midwives in the greater Dublin area.
Its second demand is for a medium term investment programme underpinning the Government's health strategy.
This would include the 10,000 additional nurse and midwife posts as well as an increase in the level of annual expenditure, excluding capital funding, on the health service to 10 per cent of GDP for four years.
The nurses have been on a work-to-rule over "inadequate staffing levels" since October 14th.
Nurses in the radiology department of St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, also members of the INO, began industrial action yesterday.
They are refusing to provide an on-call service over what they claim is management's "non-adherence to the terms of an agreement reached earlier this year".
The hospital says there was an agreement to establish parity of pay and conditions, for the five nurses involved, with nurses in the national liver transplant programme, as claimed by the INO.
In a statement, it said it was "dismayed" by the action.
