The Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has had a “pathetic” response to the trolley crisis, Sinn Féin has claimed.

The party is to hold nationwide protests today and tomorrow highlighting the scale of the problem and offering their support to nurses who plan to strike on December 15th.

The health spokesman for Sinn Féin Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the Minister needed to accept responsibility for the situation.

He said: “It is absolutely pathethic. We have a consistent position now going back a number of years where 300 plus (people) are on trolleys and in other unacceptable settings on almost a daily basis.

“The Minister cannot come out with a view that he has done all he can. He needs to now engage with the INMO (Irish Nurses Midwives Organisation) in a very focused way.

“It cannot be a case of lets see what happens on December 15th. That is not acceptable.”

Emergency department nurses across the State voted overwhelmingly this week to strike over chronic overcrowding and understaffing.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says 92 per cent of ED nurses backed the call for nationwide industrial action.

The union plans to take strike action in at least one hospital in each hospital group on Tuesday, December 15th, with further action planned in the New Year.

The exception is the University of Limerick hospitals group, where no strike will take place because Limerick hospital has the only emergency in the group.

Mr O’Caolain said there is still an opportunity to address the problem.

He said the Minister had not brought forward his Department’s supplementary estimate for this year and could allocate funds there.

Mr O’Caolain said: “He has an opportunity to address this. There is still a full month left.”