HSE support workers at University Hospital Waterford are to be balloted for industrial action.

Hundreds of community workers have marched to the Department of Finance this afternoon over pay and pensions.

Hundreds of secondary schools remain shut as a result of a nationwide strike which has impacted 200,000 students.

More than half of Go Safe speed detecting vans could be unavailable due to industrial action from Saturday.

Hospital consultants will be balloted for strike action in September unless talks take place to address the "crisis" in consultant recruitment.

Talks aimed at ending the health support dispute will get underway at the Workplace Relations Commission tomorrow.

There was no rest for Joan Costelloe, a cook employed at University Hospital, who awoke before dawn to prepare “special meals”, for patients unable to eat or swallow hard food.

The paediatric service at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) in Tallaght and at Crumlin Hospital will be impacted by the planned industrial action by SIPTU tomorrow, Children’s Health Ireland have said.

A 24-hour stoppage looks set to go ahead after talks between SIPTU, the HSE and Department of Public Expenditure at the Workplace Relations Commission yesterday failed to reach an agreement.

It follows two days of talks at the Workplace Relations Commission between Siptu and the HSE, which will resume on Monday.

Considerable disruption to hospital appointments is still likely today despite the suspension of a planned 24-hour work stoppage by 10,000 health support workers.

Health support workers in 38 hospitals and health care facilities have announced strike action for June 20.

There will be 36 hospitals impacted by strike action by some 17,000 support workers who are in dispute with their employer over a jjob evaluation scheme.

SIPTU has been balloting workers in health service support grades in 36 hospitals in a dispute over pay.

Three in five nurses have voted to accept Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving a dispute that triggered three days of strike action earlier this year.

Ambulance personnel nationwide are to go on strike for 24 hours in a further escalation of a row over union representation with the HSE.

Five days of strike action by Community Employment supervisors will take place next month.

Ambulance workers will hold a fifth day of industrial action at stations across the country today.

Up to 500 ambulance staff nationwide are to hold a fifth strike tomorrow in a stand-off with the HSE over their right to be represented by a trade union of their choice.

The ambulance personnel branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association is striking for a second consecutive day today.

Ambulance staff nationwide are to strike for two days from tomorrow in an ongoing row over the choice of union representation with the HSE.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association has suspended next week's strike action.

Teaching unions will stake their claim for more money for members, especially new entrants, if it emerges that nurses get more pay.

"What struck me were the chants that I heard (from the picket lines) proclaiming the need for safe staffing, while the key staff essential for running the services in the building behind them are outside on the picket line," said Minister Harris.

Some nurses would get pay increases of 40% next year if the government gave in to their demands.

The ratcheting up of pressure on the Health Minister Simon Harris continues as nurses return in force to the picket line today and criticism of the runaway costs of the new children’s hospital continues.

Health Minister Simon Harris has said revised terms inquiring into the spiralling costs for the National Children’s Hospital will include any recommendations on how to reduce the final bill.

A ‘productivity award’ independent and in addition to the ‘wage award’ in public sector pay talks could offer a means of resolving the current row, writes Anthony Leddin.

Everybody is in favour of the nurses. Before, during, and after the nurses’ strike last Wednesday, it was obvious that there was huge public support for their cause. Whether that support is based entirely on emotion or grounded in reason is a moot point.

Latest: The INMO Executive Council is meeting tomorrow to discuss further industrial action on top of the five days already announced.

Almost 400 workers in two of Cork’s Pfizer plants are to go on strike in little over a fortnight in a row over pensions.

A health systems expert says that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) needs to clarify what exactly they are looking for, and that the Department of Health is “actively misleading” the public with the figures it is publishing on nursing pay rates.

Latest: Patients who have had their medical appointments cancelled today are being urged not to make contact with hospitals to reschedule.

Patients have been told to stay away from hospital Emergency Departments during tomorrow's planned nurses strike unless attendence is "absolutely essential".

It has begun outlining details of expected disruption to services during the first of six 24-hour nationwide work stoppages by more than 35,000 nurses.

A European human rights body has taken Ireland to task over its continuing failure to give gardaí the legal right to strike.

Patients, GPs and hospital clinics are being warned by the HSE of serious disruptions to services this day next week if the nurses strike goes ahead.

Ambulance staff engaged in a 10-hour work stoppage have warned that more industrial action is on the way.

500 ambulance personnel are striking today, in a dispute with the HSE over union recognition.

Further talks aimed at avoiding a strike by 43,000 nurses later this month take place this morning.

The Health Minister and HSE are being urged to intervene to avert an ambulance strike scheduled for Tuesday.

An independent judge-led review of nurses' pay should be immediately set up to prevent a national strike which could cripple the hospital system, opposition parties have said.

There have been calls for an expert group to be set up to examine nurses pay claims.