The Minister for Health has warned nurses around the country that he wants to see the implementation of more flexible rosters as soon as possible.
Dr James Reilly said it was no longer realistic for nurses to expect to work their full week in three 12-hour days.
He said new rosters would also allow them to be scheduled to meet areas of high activity.
Asked whether reforming nurses rosters would be a test of the Croke Park agreement, Dr Reilly said change was always difficult.
However, against a background of 450,000 people unemployed, and with 100,000 in fear of losing their homes and tens of thousands of businesses with their backs to the wall, everyone would have to change the way they did things to get the result they wanted for the country.
Dr Reilly said he was asking for increased flexibility not just from nurses but also from consultants so that more patients could be treated more quickly.
INMO hits back
Responding to the comments by Mr Reilly, the General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said its members were already the most flexible and productive health professionals in the system.
Liam Doran said they had already lost 3,000 nursing posts in the last three years, and were working short-staffed day in, day out.
He noted that while there were 3,000 fewer nurses, there were 400 additional consultants in the system.
He said the rosters issues was a smokescreen to hide the shortage of nursing staff.
He said the focus of everyone now should be on managing clinical risk, as they had already gone beneath the floor of acceptable standards of care.
