General Secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Liam Doran has told RTÉ News that an escalation of industrial action in the nurses' dispute is more likely to come in days rather than weeks.
He said the work-to-rule would be in place indefinitely until the dispute was resolved and that the action could escalate to nationwide work stoppages.
He said that the joint Irish Nurses Organisation/Psychiatric Nurses' Association strategy committee would meet tomorrow to consider the matter.
Mr Doran also accused the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, of insulting nurses with recent comments and said patients were safe in the hands of the profession.
Minister Harney earlier appealed to work-to-rule nurses not to take their dispute with their employers out on their patients.
Ms Harney said their dispute over pay and conditions would be solved only through the existing industrial relations machinery and no exception could be made for nurses.
The minister was due to meet the Health Service Executive today to discuss how medical services can be provided during the industrial action.
Work-to-rule
More than 40,000 nurses began thier work-to-rule at 8am today.
It comes after more than three weeks of talks, overseen by the National Implementation Body aimed at averting industrial action by nurses, collapsed yesterday.
The unions say the work-to-rule will continue until their demands for a 10% pay increase and a 35-hour working week are met.
The action will affect most hospitals, psychiatric services and community facilities.
Nurses and midwives will not answer telephones, except in emergencies, or use computers in Accident and Emergency Departments to input clinical information.
A ban on assisting in bed management, administrative work and other duties also applies.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, Brendan Mulligan, Head of Industrial Relations for the HSE-Employers Agency, said a risk assessment would have to be carried out before any reduced working hours could be introduced.
