Families of those affected and bereaved by the potentially fatal hospital superbug MRSA are seeking a meeting with Minister for Health Mary Harney to get her to lift what they call "the wall of silence surrounding the MRSA crisis" in Irish hospitals.
The meeting is being sought by a lobby group, set up by Kilkenny woman Margaret Dawson, whose husband Joe (58) contracted the superbug in a Dublin hospital last year.
The group will hold a public meeting next week to outline their concerns about the prevalence of MRSA in hospitals across the State.
A total of 189 patients in the main Dublin teaching hospitals alone were identified as having MRSA in 2003.
The spread of the infection in hospitals has been linked to overcrowding and poor hand hygiene among healthcare professionals.
However, the infection is now also becoming more prevalent in the community.
The lobby group has already received support from a number of public representatives, including Carlow Kilkenny Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness and Independent Clare TD James Breen, who contracted MRSA.
Mr McGuinness said he and the group want to sit down with Ms Harney "to impress upon her the urgency of dealing with this escalating crisis in our health service".
He will chair the group's first public meeting in Kilkenny tomorrow week.