The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) is seeking urgent talks with health board management over planned bed closures and staffing at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown.
The Northern Area Health Board has denied the union's claim that 30 temporary nursing posts are to be "axed" under planned cutbacks.
It has confirmed, however, that two wards with a total of 32 beds are to be closed to enable the hospital to keep within its allocated budget of €56.3 million.
The INO says the bed closures are unsustainable and will have "significant knock-on effects" for the functioning of the hospital's accident and emergency department.
Ms Mary Fogarty, an industrial relations officer with the union, said she learned unofficially on Friday that the 30 temporary nursing posts were to be cut.
She described this as an "outrageous arbitrary decision" by the Northern Area Health Board.
In response, however, the board said the 30 nursing staff employed in the two wards earmarked for closure would be redeployed elsewhere in the hospital. These would replace agency nursing and nursing overtime, it said.
Ms Fogarty expressed concern about the future of 22 nurses on fixed-term contracts whose two-year terms would shortly finish.
She was seeking an urgent meeting with senior management of the health board to clarify the situation before holding a meeting of INO members at the hospital.
The union said on Friday that the members' meeting would be held "with a view to balloting on immediate industrial action".
Ms Fogarty said yesterday she could not comment on the likelihood of such action until she had the clarification sought from management and then met nurses at the hospital. "Any decision on that will be up to the members," she said.
Asked about the 22 nurses on fixed-term contracts, a spokesman for the health board said he did not wish to add to the board's statement in which it said nurses would be redeployed.
The statement said the hospital would be closing a 20-bed medical ward and a 12-bed rheumatology ward on a phased basis.
