THE Fianna Fail spokeswoman on Health, Ms Muire Geoghegan Quinn, called for the personal intervention of the Minister in the hospital manual workers' dispute.

A stoppage threatened today would disrupt services at 40 hospitals and many health centres in the Dublin area. It would be the second such disruption within a week, she said in an adjournment debate.

The stoppage last week resulted in patients getting soup and sandwiches instead of hot lunches. Non emergency admissions were cancelled in many hospitals, while one third of the Eastern Health Board's 110 health centres had to close. Payment of supplementary welfare was also affected.

A 24 hour stoppage by manual workers threatened for next Wednesday would result in "absolute chaos" in the health services and put other hospital workers under immense pressure.

"The entire health service in the greater Dublin area could creak to a halt, with potentially serious implications for some patients."

The Minister should have become involved following the failure this week of talks at the Labour Relations Commission. The workers involved were exasperated at delays over improving their complex pension scheme. According to SIPTU figures, a porter with the maximum 40 years service had an occupational pension of just £27.50 a week. When the old age pension was increased by £2.20 in July the occupational pension would apparently go down to £23.10.

The Minister, Mr Noonan, said he was concerned about the scale of disruption, but talks were currently taking place between unions and management at the Labour Relations Commission and he did not want to comment in any way that might prejudice them.