The divisive nature of the nurses' industrial action was highlighted yesterday with the Taoiseach telling the Dail the nurses had "driven a coach and horses" through the national pay agreement.
The Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven Gordon Linney, meanwhile accused the Government of audacity. "How can a Government which failed to confront its friends in business over recent years now take such a line with a group of the most dedicated people in society?" he asked. He was speaking at the Diocesan Synods of Dublin and Glendalough last night.
Archdeacon Linney is a member of the board of Tallaght Hospital.
"It really is appalling to hear from senior members of Government hardline utterances accusing nurses of putting patients' lives at risk when the same Government has presided over closed wards and long queues of waiting lists, with facilities lying idle," he said.
Mr Ahern made it clear in his hard-hitting message to the 27,000 nurses that there will be no Government climb-down.
With six days to go to the first national nurses' strike, the Taoiseach warned that the Labour Court award rejected by the nursing unions remained the Government's "bottom line". He told the Dail there was no need for a strike as recent awards meant the nurses had "effectively got six times more than the average public service worker".
"We cannot continue to pay hundreds of million of pounds to one sector while expecting other sectors to quietly acquiesce. The gardai and bus, DART and local authority workers are now queuing up to take strike action because they accepted a 3 per cent pay increase in the first instance, but then saw a coach and carriage driven through it, not once but three times, by the nurses."
The Fine Gael health spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, accused the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, of exacerbating the difficulties by "crass and insensitive comment".
The Government remains firm in its insistence that any concessions to the nurses beyond the Labour Court award would be a breach of Partnership 2000.
Padraig Yeates adds: Responsibility for ensuring adequate facilities are available to treat patients during the threatened strike rests firmly with management, health service doctors have been advised by the Irish Medical Organisation. It has informed members they must ensure "adequate and safe resources" are available "prior to commencing patient treatment".