Over 1,500 public health nurses have overwhelmingly voted to go on strike in a dispute over pay benchmarking.
The nurses have been concerned since the benchmarking report on public sector pay, published in July, contained pay recommendations that differed from those proposed by the Government-sponsored Commission on Nursing.
The nurses' representative body, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), said benchmarking would see public health nurses 3 per cent worse off in comparison to other nurses.
The INO say the benchmarking proposal fails to account for the Commission on Nursing recommendation that public health nurses be paid in line with clinical health nurses.
INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said today public health nurses have three qualifications in comparison to the one qualification held by most clinical health nurses and would be at the forefront of the implementation of the Government's primary care strategy.
Mr Doran told RTÉ radio this morning that he was hopeful that a resolution could be found and that the grievance could easily be solved if "common sense" was applied.
The nurses will meet on Saturday to decide on the nature of their action.