The HSE has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after it threatened to take the Pensions Board to the High Court over its ruling on payments to an injured nurse, only to settle the case.

There is little sign of hospital overcrowding subsiding, as yesterday saw 523 patients on trolleys, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association.

Unions have today called on nursing graduates to boycott a new HSE recruitment scheme, which plans to recruit 1,000 graduates on a lower payscale.

FINE GAEL TD Dara Murphy said there “was an element of let down” in seeing St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital transfer to the southside of Cork after told voters during the election campaign that it would not be moved.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) spent almost €45 million hiring agency staff to fill vacancies in the first five months of last year, more than three years into its ban on filling permanent posts.