The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, yesterday renewed his appeal to psychiatric nurses to call off their strike planned for next Wednesday.
A meeting between the Minister and representatives of the nurses' union - the Psychiatric Nurses' Association - at Leinster House ended without any agreement.
The Department offered to bring forward the bench marking proposals in the new national pay agreement to this month, which would enable a review of the psychiatric nurses' pay differentials to go ahead.
PNA general secretary, Mr Des Kavanagh, welcomed the review but called on the health managers to engage in real negotiations. There are no plans for further meetings before next Wednesday.
The strike will hit the acute psychiatric units in three Dublin hospitals - St Vincent's, Tallaght and the Mater.
