As nurses prepare to hold further one-hour work stoppages at a number of hospitals this morning, Minister for Health Mary Harney admitted last night she saw no sign of their dispute with employers over pay and conditions being resolved.
"I hope talks will be resumed where we will be able to reach agreement," she said, but added: "I don't see any possibility of that at the moment."
She claimed patients were suffering as a result of the ongoing industrial action by more than 40,000 nurses who are members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA).
The nurses are now in the third week of working to rule, under which they are refusing to deal with non-essential phone calls or carry out clerical or IT duties.
They are seeking a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour working week. At present they work a 39-hour week.
Ms Harney was jeered by members of the INO and PNA when she arrived at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, to attend a function yesterday evening.
Earlier, nurses stopped work for an hour at hospitals in Sligo, Dundalk and Bantry, as well as at mental health facilities in Cos Sligo, Leitrim, Louth and Cork.
Today nurses will stop work for an hour from 11am at the largest hospital in the State, St James's in Dublin.
They will also stop work for an hour at Ennis General Hospital and Portlaoise General Hospital as well as at St Patrick's psychiatric hospital, Dublin, and at mental health services in Laois-Offaly and Clare.
The stoppages at the three acute hospitals will result in a number of patients having appointments cancelled. St James's Hospital said it had to reschedule two day-case procedures; Ennis General Hospital said it had to defer one surgical procedure for a day; and Portlaoise General Hospital has had to cancel four surgical patients.
The HSE said it had received assurances from the PNA that patient care in the mental health facilities hit by work stoppages would not be affected.
But it said that after three days of work stoppages, approximately 70 patients have had procedures deferred and outpatient clinics and some hospital theatres are behind schedule.
Angela Fitzgerald, of the HSE's national hospitals office, said the work-to-rule by nurses is now also threatening to affect patient safety. She said there were very serious concerns about the fact that nurses are now maintaining patient records manually and there was a very real risk that in some cases crucial patient data may be lost and in such an event "an adverse patient incident" could not be ruled out.
Ms Harney reiterated that the only people who were suffering as a result of the dispute were patients. "Procedures are being cancelled, information is not being passed on to patients in a timely fashion . . . these are very worrying things," she said.
Séamus Murphy, industrial relations officer with the PNA, rejected the suggestion that patient safety was being put at risk by the industrial action.
He said the nurses' resolve to continue their campaign to get what they want was hardening.
Meanwhile Dublin solicitor Gary Byrne told a conference on employment law yesterday that the outcome of the current dispute over the working hours and pay rates for nurses could affect companies in the private sector such as private health facilities, which would be expected to match what was offered in the public sector.
This could, he said, make Ireland a less attractive location for foreign direct investment.