People urged not to attend A&E at two Dublin hospitals

The Health Service Executive is appealing to people only to attend the A&E departments in Dublin's Mater and Beaumont hospitals in the event of a genuine emergency.

The body says the two hospitals have had to cope with a large influx of patients in recent days.

The Mater was also recently hit with an outbreak of winter vomiting bug which delayed a number of discharges and affected hospital resources.

People are being advised to contact their GP or GP out-of-hours service before attending hospital.