Ambulance workers from the Psychiatric Nurses Association say they have been left with no choice but to go on strike.

Paramedics who are members of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association will protest at Leinster House later, demanding the HSE recognise their union.

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

Just one in four ambulances is meeting turnaround targets, leaving thousands of patients waiting to be transferred to hospitals.

An ambulance transporting a young patient from Donegal to Dublin broke down outside Letterkenny, so another vehicle had to be called to continue the journey.