The minister for health has promised to do whatever he can to make sure that measures to ease overcrowding in emergency departments are implemented.

But Leo Varadkar says he can't be expected to micro-manage the emergency departments of 28 hospitals - six of which now face strike action next week.

It's after the INMO voted to reject the most recent plans - with union leaders saying it's because members don't think they would actually be implemented. 

The 58% vote means stoppages that were planned for last month, which will affect each hospital for two hours, will now go ahead beginning next Thursday.

The HSE's own figures this morning show 393 people on trolleys in emergency departments - almost half of them for nine hours or more. 

The HSE's director-general Tony O'Brien said the number was not acceptable.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports: