There are 299 patients on trolleys or on wards today waiting for admission to a hospital bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The hospital worst affected is the Midland Regional Mullingar, with 28 patients waiting.
Other hospitals badly affected are: Midland Regional Tullamore with 25 waiting, Tallaght Hospital with 25 waiting and Beaumont which has 24 patients waiting.
The Department of Health has said there were 250 people waiting in emergency departments as of 8am this morning, which they say is the same number as this day last year.
The Emergency Department Task Force is due to meet tomorrow after the summer break to review the situation.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said that he will be unveiling details of the €40 million winter initiative at the meeting.
Responding to the IMO's remarks earlier, he said the problem was not just about bed capacity in acute hospitals and that there were more beds open this year compared with last year.
He said that the winter initiative will see more beds being opened and dealing with people spending longer in hospital than they need to.
Mr Harris also said he was looking at a separate initiative to have more hip and knee replacement procedures performed to cut waiting lists.
'Hospital overcrowding is a year-round problem' - IMO
Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation claims over 1,600 beds have been taken out of the public health system and that the shortage of acute beds in public hospitals is the root cause of the overcrowding problem in emergency departments.
The organisation, a lobby group for the medical profession, has warned that hospital overcrowding is now a year-round problem and that it is wrong to just focus on addressing the issue during winter months.
The Government's "Winter Initiative" is indicative of the under resourcing of the health system on a year-round basis, it said in a statement.
While demand is increasing in part due to an ageing population, it is also because patients are not receiving timely care due to long waiting lists and cancelling of elective surgery, the IMO continued.
Chairman of the IMO Consultant Committee Dr Peadar Gilligan said: "Our population is rising and we have cut 1,600 public beds from our hospitals.
"That goes back to an ill-fated decision in 2004 to reduce the number of acute public hospital beds. We're still paying a price for that. Put those together and a crisis in our public hospitals is inevitable."
Dr Gilligan also said the emigration of Irish doctors is a problem.
"Currently we have a situation of being unable to recruit consultants and our doctors in training are emigrating in greater numbers each year," he added.
The IMO is also concerned that general practice and community services are not sufficiently resourced to meet the needs of patients at local level.
In a statement this afternoon, the Department of Health said it "recognises that there are challenges in relation to acute bed capacity in our hospital system" but that "the number of patients on trolleys has improved by almost 5% in the year to date".
"This improvement has been achieved despite an increase of 4% in inpatient and day-case activity. Although numbers of acute beds dropped by approximately 1,000 between 2007-2011, bed capacity has increased since 2011. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to a review of our bed capacity."
