Minister for Health James Reilly said today he wants to see new, more flexible rosters introduced for nurses as soon as possible.
He said it was not realistic for nurses to continue to work their full week in three days of 12 hour shifts.
He said far more flexibility was needed to allow staff to be moved across areas of high activity.
The Minister said he accepted that change was always difficult. However, he said his proposals had to be seen against a backdrop of 450,000 people unemployed, 100,000 mortgage-holders in fear of losing their homes and tens of thousands of businesses with their backs to the wall.
Dr Reilly was speaking at the opening of a new Colposcopy Unit at the Coombe hospital in Dublin as part of CervicalCheck programme.