The Irish Nurses Organisation has requested a package of measures in the next budget to improve pay and working conditions to prevent nurses leaving for jobs abroad.
The proposals are aimed at "reversing the mass emigration of Irish-trained nurses to other countries because Ireland does not value them properly", says the INO.
The organisation said the difficulties facing the health service need to be addressed and responses should not be "subject to the restrictive clauses of Sustaining Progress".
The INO claims up to 9,000 Irish-based nurses made applications seeking to have their qualifications validated for a potential overseas employer in the six years to 2003.
Over that timeframe the numbers seeking overseas validations has more than tripled, accoridng to data from An Bord Altranais, the regulatory body for nurses.
Eleven core inititives to improve nurses renumeration have been proposed by the INO, including a 35-hour standard week for nursing an midwifery staff and the introduction of a €3,500 Dublin weighting for the 12,000 nurses working in the capital.
Mr Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO, told ireland.comthat action was required to deal with the problems in the health service.
"Social partnership is not really succeeding if we have a health service incapable of meeting demand and leaving patients on trolleys for days and while we have overcrowded classes and run down schools," he said.
The measures sought by the INO - which also includes the removal of the first two points on the nursing scale at an annual cost of €5 million to the Exchequer - have not been fully costed as some would require negotiationm, Mr Doran said.
He admitted the measures sought opened the INO up to accusations of engaging in local bargining but he said there was a precedent for the use of expectional measures when the supply of key professional staff was under threat.
Countries like Britain, America and Australia were all head-hunting Irish-trained nurses offering better pay and conditions that was available here, he said.