The national conference of the country's nurses and midwives opens today amid a dispute over the decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney not to attend.
Minister for Health Mary Harney denied she was running scared from the Irish Nursing Organisation annual conference and insisted she would not be able to attend due to clashes in her diary.
The Tánaiste had previously turned down an invite to address the event on Friday as she will be in America, but the INO yesterday said it would accommodate her if she chose to address delegates today or tomorrow.
Ms Harney said that she would be unable to change her diary at such short notice — a decision which breaks a 30-year tradition with the serving Health Minister speaking at the conference.
"There is no question of this being other than a diary issue for me. It is not possible with 24 hours notice to change a diary commitment," Ms Harney said today.
She firmly denied that she was running scared from angry nurses at the three-day conference in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.
"Anybody that thinks that I'm afraid of any group would want to think again," she said. Ms Harney said the INO could not have been in any doubt since February that she was unable to attend the event.
She said the INO gave her one specific date and didn't offer an alternative speaking slot.
Defending her record, the minister estimated that she had spoken at four different nursing conferences so far in 2006.