A 50-bed acute mental health unit at Cork University Hospital is lying idle, two months after it was due to open, because of a row over staffing.
The Health Service Executive has proposed to run the unit with 55 full-time staff on a 24-hour roster, but unions say this is not enough.
The new South Lee acute mental health unit has been six years in planning it cost €15 million to build and replaces the regularly-criticised GF unit at the hospital.
But, since the end of January, the new unit has remained empty, although it is been ready to open.
The Health Service Executive says it has clinically assessed staffing levels required to operate the new unit.
It insists that its proposal of 50 nurses and five healthcare assistants - an increase on the 40 nursing staff who work in the existing unit is adequate.
However, trade unions SIPTU and the Psychiatric Nurses Association have both rejected the proposed staffing levels, and their members say they will not transfer to the new unit until their concerns are addressed.
So, at the moment, management and unions appear to be deadlocked.
Both sides say they want to move into this new unit and are prepared to reconvene negotiations to resolve their differences.
