The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has described the combination of nursing shortages and the backlog in processing nursing registration applications as a "perfect storm".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Keelin Shanley, INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said while the recently announced recruitment drive for nurses was welcome, the bureaucracy necessary to support it was not adequately resourced.
"We have a perfect storm going on at the moment which in my view is a crisis, in my view is an end result of total mismanagement for the last five years.
"The good news is we are turning a corner but the bureaucracy has not been geared up to allow the supply of needed manpower come into the clinical arena quick enough and it has to be prioritised."
Registration is carried out by the Irish Nursing Board, An Bord Altranais, and the CEO of the board, Dr Maura Pidgeon, appeared before the Oireachatas Committee on 16 July.
She said there are currently just over 2,000 applications being processed, half of which could not progress due to incomplete documentation being received.
She said 35 applications had been in the system for more than 12 months. The remaining 974 applications were received between January and June this year.
Dr Pidgeon said at the time that the NMBI was acutely aware of the impact that the delays are having on the health service and the Department of Health had authorised additional resources but they needed additional full time staff.
PCQ Nurse Recruitment, Managing Director, Paul Chandler, said a nurse from another country within Europe could wait six weeks just to receive an application form and there was a ten week delay in opening post at the NMBI.
