Talks between nursing unions and health service employers over improved pay and conditions have been adjourned until tomorrow afternoon amid fears that they are about to collapse.
Nurses are threatening to begin a national work-to-rule in hospitals from Monday if agreement is not reached, but it is understood that the gap between both sides remains significant.
When nurses launched a nationwide campaign last month for improved pay and conditions, they chose Cork as the location for their first protest.
It drew a big crowd and, after further protests in Limerick, Galway and Dublin, the National Implementation Body set up a forum to try to address the nurses' claims.
That first protest meeting in Cork was held outside Cork University Maternity Hospital. And now the row over the opening of that hospital has affected the National Implementation Body talks.
Last Monday Minister for Health Mary Harney asked for the talks to be suspended because of the row in Cork. And today, against a backdrop of a lack of progress, those talks were adjourned until tomorrow afternoon.
But despite a warning from nurses that they will begin a national work-to-rule from Monday if agreement is not reached, all sides are now fearful that the talks are about to collapse.
