THE Fianna Fail health spokesman, Mr Brian Cowen, urged that the Minister for Health become directly involved in resolving the nurses' dispute.

A strike would bring the health services to a halt and the ensuing chaos was unthinkable, Mr Cowen said in an adjournment debate. It was unfair to expect the Labour Court to resolve the dispute "at the 59th minute of the 11th hour".

Ms Liz O'Donnell (PD, Dublin South) said most people accepted that the nurses had a genuine grievance and that there was legitimacy in their claim.

The nurses' plight was not unrelated to gender. Did anyone believe that if the INO represented 26,000 men providing a vital and essential service, that there would have been such slow progress?

The Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, referred to his meeting with the alliance of nursing unions on January 21st and efforts now being made by the Labour Court to avert a strike. The court would make its recommendation not later than midnight tonight.

In common with other deputies, he did not want to see a strike.

"However, I am sure Deputy Cowen, whose party were one of the architects of the PCW, and Deputy O'Donnell, whose colleagues continually stress the need to control and reduce public expenditure, will agree with me that there must be a limit to the resources which can be committed to resolving the dispute."