Unions will begin balloting up to 40,000 nurses next week on a phased programme of industrial action over pay and conditions.
The nurses, who are members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, had a claim for a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour working week turned down by the Labour Court late last year.
The INO will hold a series of regional meetings across the country this month, beginning next Tuesday in Cork and Tullamore, and it will begin balloting its members on industrial action at these meetings.
There will also be regional meetings in Donegal, Galway, Limerick, Carrickmacross, Kilkenny and Dublin between January 10th and 18th where balloting will take place.
Counting of ballots will take place in the first week of February.
If the unions are given a mandate for industrial action, it will begin on a phased basis beginning with lunch-hour protests and a work to rule, followed by a full withdrawal of labour. The unions say they will provide emergency cover if industrial action occurs but insist members must be paid.
The Labour Court said in its ruling last November that the nurses should pursue their claims through benchmarking, but their unions have rejected this.
Prior to the ruling, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, said the nurses' pay claim would cost €1.5 billion, was "not affordable" and would not be paid.