Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has accused Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny of being "highly irresponsible" in his calls for political intervention in the nurses' dispute.
Mr Kenny yesterday told an Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) special conference that a mediator should be appointed to broker a solution between union officials and the Health Service Executive.
He also pledged to personally meet the nurses in his first week of office if he becomes Taoiseach following the May 24th election.
However Mr Ahern warned that the Fine Gael leader's suggestions would have implications for the pay claims of other public sector groups.
"Yesterday when I saw the leader of Fine Gael saying this can all be resolved by an independent third party person. . . . In my view it is a highly irresponsible statement because anybody that knows anything about industrial relations knows you just can't take one group in isolation and resolve it," Mr Ahern told a Fianna Fáil health briefing today.
"That apart, I accept that he has no experience in industrial relations and never had."
Mr Kenny responded later: "I make no apology for saying that political intervention at the very highest level should be involved here because it is the number one issue in the country today. I believe that the roadmap I have pointed out would move this forward to a point where it can be resolved.
"I don't take lectures on 'responsibility' from a Taoiseach who hasn't met face to face with the nurses in four months. I've laid out a roadmap for addressing this dispute, combining personal commitment with the machinery of industrial relations.
"The only irresponsible position is the Government's, by refusing to engage directly and creatively. Resolving this dispute will be a top priority for me and my government, and I will take personal responsibility for bringing it to a close."
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said it was only to be expected that the party leaders would set out their stand on the nurses' dispute.
"Everywhere we go, we are asked about the nurses' dispute. Everywhere we go, hospitals are the first issue on everybody's lips. Everwhere we go, we meet nurses who are concerned with the dispute. And of course, the INO invited the party leaders to address yesterday's event," he said at a Labour Party media briefing.
Asked about the Taoiseach's proposal to have an international expert examine the feasibility of the 35-hour week, Mr Rabbitte said he believed the idea of "importing somebody from outside" was "purely a face-saving suggestion to get us past polling day".
"The expertise resides in the domestic industrial relations machinery. If there's one thing we are good at, it is the procedures that have been put in place to resolve industrial disputes," he said.
Mr Rabbitte said he believed the formula he had set out three-and-a-half weeks ago "is still more probably the one that is likely to end up seeing a resolution of this dispute.
"I think it is possible to agree a formula that will set a timeframe for the phased introduction of the 35-hour week in return for changes in work practices which are badly needed in the hospitals, and allow the pay issue to be determined within existing machinery."
The INO and Psychiatric Nurses Association last night agreed to escalate their industrial action by holding a two-hour national stoppage on Wednesday.