The Government was sharply attacked by the Opposition parties because of its handling of the health services.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said that the vote by the INO for strike action had received the support of 93 per cent of its membership.

In another development, the IMO, which represented 5,200 doctors, had stated that standards in accident and emergency units did not even reach minimum standards of quality, he added.

"This is an appalling indictment of the Government's health policy."

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said that notwithstanding the substantial additional increases in taxpayers' money, the health system appeared to be in a daily state of chaos. "Does the Taoiseach agree it might be better if he visited more accident and emergency wards and fewer official openings of pubs in order that he might discover, firsthand, what has gone wrong ?"

Mr Ahern said he had visited numerous excellent new hospitals and accident and emergency units throughout the State.

"These are state of the art facilities that are well staffed with excellent people who work hard. Unfortunately, however, that does not apply to every hospital. It would be nice if industrial relations difficulties did not occur, but that is not the case." He added that the Health Service Employers' Agency was hosting a meeting with the relevant parties tomorrow, when the issues would be discussed.