Labour: Taoiseach must intervene in nurses dispute

The deputy leader of the Labour Party is urging the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to intervene personally in an effort to resolve the nurses' dispute.

As the stalemate continues, their industrial action is due to escalate after the Easter Bank Holiday, with rolling work-stoppages from Wednesday.

The Labour Party's health spokesperson Liz McManus said that will create "real difficulties" in ensuring that patients get the care they need.

Ms McManus said she believes Mr Ahern is the man to break the deadlock: "We have a Taoiseach with a reputation for being a man who can fix things. What we need to see now is a real initiative from the Government to open up talks again.

"We all understand that this is a very difficult issue; it's not going to be easy to negotiate. But at the end of the day, a solution is going to have to be found and the fact that there is, in effect, silence from the Government, or at worst lecturing from the Government, is not helping the situation at all," she concluded.