The Health Service Executive (HSE) Southern Area has said it is "part of the job description" of hospital porters at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee to apply plaster to broken bones.
The HSE was contacted for comment after a mother of a teenager became concerned last week when her son's broken wrist was being plastered by a hospital porter in the busy A&E ward of the hospital last week.
The woman expected that medical personnel would carry out such a task. She was allegedly told by the porter that he was asked to carry out the procedure when the unit was busy. She asked that the procedure be conducted by a medical doctor.
The HSE said it could not comment on individual cases. However, "porters who apply plaster of Paris at Kerry General Hospital received ongoing training in plaster application. This is part of the job description of porters who are trained appropriately to provide this service in conjunction with medical staff," the statement said.
Michael Dineen, industrial relations officer with the INO, said in the UK, a clinical nurse specialist or orthopaedic surgeon carries out the task of applying the plaster on broken limbs.
Historically, even before the staffing crisis in A&E units, the practice in Ireland in many hospitals was that porters carried out the task. In a lot of instances they would have received specialist training.
Staff levels at the unit have come under scrutiny this week after reports of the threatened resignation of the unit's only consultant Dr Seán O'Rourke. With 28,000 attendances a year, the unit is urgently in need of extra staff, Mr Dineen said.
The hospital's complement of 408 nurses did not allow for leave, and beds were not closed at the hospital this summer only because nurses were being called back to duty from holidays and days off, Mr Dineen claimed.
The HSE said as far as they were concerned Dr O'Rourke had not resigned.
A new A&E department will be built as part of the capital development programme and the design brief has already been finalised.
"Kerry General Hospital has its full complement of staff according to the whole-time-equivalent ceiling and funding levels," the statement said.