Health services across the country will experience major disruption again this morning, as 37,000 nurses and midwives stage a second day of strike action.
A government offer of talks has been roundly rejected by their union, the INMO, as the discussions wouldn't address their pay claims.
A suggestion by Ministers Simon Harris and Paschal Donohue for talks on issues other than pay has been dismissed as "spin masquerading as substance" by the INMO.
Up to 50,000 outpatient appointments and planned procedures have been cancelled, and day centres for older people and those with disabilities are closed.
The advice is to stay away from emergency departments.
The HSE's mental health services face disruption too, as the Psychiatric Nurses Association are extending an overtime ban tomorrow and Thursday in their own row over pay and working conditions.
With unions and government entrenched in their views, it seems a breakthrough is a long way off.
Nurses and midwives go back to the picket lines at 8am tomorrow. We asked some of them what going on strike meant to them. ✊ pic.twitter.com/AsVBtZ0rJV
— Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (@INMO_IRL) February 4, 2019
