Tánaiste Michael McDowell will today open his first national conference as Progressive Democrats leader as the party languishes at its lowest-ever position in the polls.

If nurses get a special bonus for working in Dublin, then other civil servants like teachers and gardai will make similar demands, the Minister for Health said today.

NURSES and midwives plan to boycott next week’s Irish Congress of Trade Unions vote on the national pay agreement.

Nursing chiefs tonight decided to put pay and standards of care at the top of the union’s campaign for change.

Wages, privatisation, staff levels and Minister for Health Mary Harney will be discussed by the country’s nurses and midwives at their annual conference in Co Cavan tomorrow.

NURSES have hit back at the Health Service Executive (HSE) to defend their colleagues after the HSE issued a statement accusing them of preventing up to 1,800 operations taking place through their “irregular” work practices.

Claire O’Sullivan in Killarney

Evelyn Ring

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney is facing her first real crisis at the Department of Health after hospital consultants and nurses yesterday threatened strike action.

Nurses worked under protest at one of the country’s main hospitals today to highlight the dangers they face over parking problems.

ACCIDENT and emergency nurses throughout the country are dreading Christmas and the New Year.

NURSES are being used to prevent a crisis in midwifery care at some of the country’s largest maternity hospitals, the Irish Nursing Organisation said yesterday.

PLANNED admissions to a Midlands hospital were yesterday cancelled as nursing staff stepped up industrial action.

Dublin's five main training hospitals - the Mater, Beaumont, St Vincent's, St James' and Tallaght - are expected to announce further bed closures today due to a €100m budget deficit.

NURSES at a hospital for mentally handicapped patients are threatening industrial action unless staffing levels are radically improved.