Niamh Power's hours are not so bad, she says. She "only" works an 87-hour week. "There are a lot worse off than me," says Dr Power. "There are some who work 100 or more a week."

But she is getting out. After 11 years in medicine - between studying, fellowships and working - Dr Power (28) is leaving to train as an air pilot.

"Ever since I was a child I had leant towards medicine and I thought I'd enjoy it. And I do enjoy it, but it had come to a point where the cons outweighed the benefits. I kept thinking things would get better, but this EU thing was just the last kick in the teeth."

This "EU thing" was the decision by the Council of Ministers last month to delay the application of the European Commission's 1993 Working Time Directive to junior doctors. It would have reduced their hours to 48 a week and the decision to phase in its application to non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) over 13 years caused protests by hundreds of junior doctors across the State on Wednesday.

Dr Power, who leaves her job as a second-year registrar in orthopaedics this month, had been part of a four-in-one rota at Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital. She is on call every fourth night and through every fourth weekend.

"Being on call means you go in at 7.30 a.m. as normal and finish at 6 or 7 p.m.," she explains. "Then you are on call doing emergency work through the night, finishing at 9 a.m. Then you go back to doing the normal day work and finish up at six or 7 o'clock that evening.

"People think being on call means you are sitting about waiting for the phone to ring. But it is non-stop work. The average sleep time you'd get on call is about two hours."

She says her job is particularly heavy, with a lot of lifting and moving of limbs.

"And being on your feet through the day, night and day, at the end of the second day your power is gone. Things take longer when you are that exhausted. I remember when I was an intern and I'd been on call one night, I got an hour's sleep and at about 4 p.m. the next day I was putting in an IV (intravenous) drip. This girl had terrible veins and I was having terrible trouble. I was getting hassle from other people to do something else. I was on the verge of breaking down. But you toughen up."

People have broken down, passed out, fainted, she continues.

"I never have, thank God. Though after a night on call I have had an anaesthetist come in with me to start an operation who has told me I looked poorly and asked me to sit down and have a cup of coffee before we started."

The effect of fatigue on performance is the main issue the Working Time Directive seeks to address. The commission's proposal last year to extend it to junior doctors, and to workers in road, rail and sea transport, speak of "excessively long hours, inadequate rest-periods or disruptive working patterns".

On the 270,000 junior doctors throughout the EU, they say: "There is a clear risk to the health and safety of a considerable number of trainee doctors. To the extent that these doctors are directly involved in medical procedures and medical decisions affecting patients, the safety of such patients could also be put at risk."

Research carried out at the University of South Australia by Dr Drew Dawson in 1997, published in the periodical Nature, finds that patients would be safer with a doctor who was drunk than with one who had had no sleep for 28 hours.

Almost half the EU's trainee doctors are in Germany, where they are protected by an agreement between their trade union, the Marburger Bund, and the government. Their maximum working week is 38.5 hours, and they are paid above the basic rate for any overtime.

The working hours of this State's 2,771 junior doctors are "the worst in the EU", says Dr Mick Molloy of the NCHDs' representative committee on the IMO. But they can be reduced, he says. We inherited our system from Britain, he says, "but in the UK they have progressed."

While the British Medical Association is also fighting last month's EU decision, junior doctors there have at least had, since 1996, a "new deal" where they work a maximum of 56 to 70 hours a week depending on their specialisation.

"Here we have no rules, no maximums. We have had this ostrich-scenario where the health authorities have to be dragged kicking and screaming into making 21st-century healthcare provision."

"We don't like talking about money," he continues, but he sees the pay of NCHDs as a pivotal issue.

Junior doctors are not paid overtime. They are paid for 39 hours a week. For up to 10 hours over that they are paid at time-and-a-quarter, although they have to work 20 hours over to get that 10 hours' rate. If, for instance, they work just 16 hours over, they are paid at the overtime rate for just eight of the hours worked. Beyond that they are paid at "under-time" rates, and some hospitals will not pay anything for hours worked beyond 65.

Reducing hours would mean more personnel, says Dr Molloy, which would mean not getting all that work done at "under-time" rates or even for nothing. "It would also mean money in planning and structural changes." While his immediate fears are for patients' and doctors' health, in the longer term concerns are for the quality of Irish healthcare.

Over the past 15 years, approximately 6,000 medical students have graduated from Irish colleges. If today there are 2,771 NCHDs, where, asks Dr Molloy, have the others gone? He surmises that they have left either Ireland or medicine.

Dr Power says that of the 60 NCHDs in St Vincent's Hospital, she could name eight "who are actively seeking employment elsewhere".

"It's something you didn't see before," she continues. "People are jumping ship, some of them considered top of their class. But at this stage morale is so low. People are at their wits' end."

Meetings between the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Health Services Employment Agency ended yesterday. They have agreed to undertake a survey of working hours.

According to Mr Fintan Hourihan, industrial relations executive with the IMO, they have also agreed to introduce adequate locum cover and ensure doctors are paid for every hour worked.

It's all too late for Dr Power.

"I am disappointed," she says, "but I'd rather be making this decision at 28 than at 38. At this stage I just want my life back."