INO to discuss possible action over A&E overcrowding

The Irish Nurses Organisation's executive council is due to meet later today to discuss the possibility of engaging in a series of protests over on-going problems in accident and emergency units.

The organisation has been complaining for years about the growing problem of A&E overcrowding and the effect it is having on patients and staff.

Health Minister Mary Harney has proposed a 10-point plan to alleviate the situation, but the INO said yesterday that this was being held up by bureaucracy at local level.

Liam Doran, the general secretary of the INO, said the union was likely to agree on a series of lunchtime protests today to highlight is anger at the matter.