Psychiatric nurses yesterday picketed the Mid Western Health Board headquarters during its monthly meeting in Limerick in a protest over staffing levels and working conditions.
A spokesman for the nurses' union said staff were feeling demoralised as a result of lack of funding resulting in low numbers of personnel. Despite the expansion of the service in the community this is not reflected in the allocated funding.
The health board said at the meeting that industrial relation issues were being dealt with systematically and would be addressed. The assistant CEO, Mr Ger Crowley, told the meeting that 50 psychiatric nurses were in training at the moment.