The HSE and the INMO are engaged in talks at the Workplace Relations Commission in a bid to avert strike action at major hospitals across the country next Thursday.

The INMO union says their members will hold rolling two hour work stoppages in protest at overcrowding.

If the action goes ahead 7 hospitals will be affected including Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Sinn Féin' Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald says that nurses in Ireland have no other option at this stage;