The Taoiseach urged nurses not to proceed with their strike as opposition parties criticised the Government's failure to open talks during Question Time.

"I would urge the nursing profession to take account of the national interest, and to accept what is on offer," Mr Ahern said.

The Government had to take everybody into account, he said. "We cannot go on just paying hundreds of millions extra to one sector and expecting other sectors to sit around. The reason the gardai, the bus and DART workers, and local authority workers are all queuing up for strike action is because they accepted 3 per cent in the first instance and then they saw a coach and carriage driven through it, not once but three times, by the nurses."

If the nurses still felt aggrieved, they could either collectively or individually use due process in the future under the nursing commission report, the new public service pay determination, or in the post-Partnership 2000 talks, he said.

The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, urged the establishment of a health services forum.

"Quite clearly, this problem goes beyond the problems of the nurses, deep and grave as they clearly are." There was a crisis in the health services, with operating theatres in the most expensive hospital the State had built vacant for lack of staff. Beds and wards were closed for lack of staff, and the waiting list was 33,000, which was possibly understated.

Mr Ahern said he noted Mr Quinn's proposal, but he had to say that there were more people than ever being treated.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said the Taoiseach's urgings relating to social partnership would be more persuasive if the Government could lead by example. Why had partnership broken down between the Government and the unions representing the nursing profession?

Mr Ahern said the Labour Court decision was there to be accepted. The Government had honoured the terms of the present and previous partnership.

Mr Bruton asked Mr Ahern if he would accept in good faith that one could form the impression that he regarded a strike as inevitable at this stage, and that the issue was on "auto-pilot" until the strike actually started.

It was as if the Government was acting as "a dispassionate observer of an event that could lead to one of the worst human tragedies in recent Irish history, where people will die for lack of treatment".

Mr Quinn said when there was a nine-to-one rejection of a Labour Court recommendation, and a similar margin in favour of a strike, it was clear that somewhere between both sides communication had broken down.

Mr Ahern said he did not believe in taking a hard line in disputes. "You have to talk, you have to discuss. In this case, that is precisely what we did."