Talks between nursing unions and health service management are taking place at Government Buildings this evening.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) are seeking a 10 per cent pay rise, a 35- hour week and a special allowance for those working in Dublin.
A national work-to-rule is planned for Monday if the talks fail.
The work-to-rule and possible work stoppages by 40,000 nurses and midwives were deferred from earlier this month to allow for the talks.
INO general secretary Liam Doran has said that in the event of industrial action going ahead, nurses would provide emergency cover but only if this was paid for by health service management.
The HSE has said that some non-essential operations have been postponed by some hospitals and special incident rooms have been set up around the country as a precautionary measure.
The Labour Court last year rejected claims put forward by the two nursing organisations and said that some of these could be addressed through the public service benchmarking process.
However the unions have maintained that the first benchmarking report did not deal with their claims and that they have no confidence in the second process which is due to be completed next year.