FIANNA FAIL has called on the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, to reopen talks with the nursing unions to avert a national strike.
Ms Maire Geoghegan Quinn, the party's spokeswoman on health, said that unless immediate action was taken the strike would go ahead next month and have a "disastrous impact" on the health services.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation has said it believes there will be a significant vote in favour of strike action, which is due to begin on February 10th.
Ms Geoghegan Quinn warned that the entire health system would "grind to a halt within hours" if the strike went ahead. She added: "The anger among nurses has been completely underestimated and has been deepened by the insensitive comments made by the Minister for Finance when he told nurses some weeks ago that they had made `a gross error of judgment' in rejecting the second pay offer."
Last November Mr Noonan told nurses that there was no money available to meet their demands. He also said that they were in breach of the peace clause of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work by simply balloting on strike action.