Roscommon:Some 200 nurses took part in yesterday's one-hour stoppage at Roscommon County Hospital and at mental health facilities throughout the county.
The 11am stoppage, for which the nurses will be docked pay, was part of the nationwide campaign by nurses for better pay and a shorter working week.
"This is a magnificent turnout in Roscommon. You know as well as I know, you are not alone. There are thousands of nurses outside Beaumont Hospital and hundreds more outside Portrane," the gathering outside Roscommon County Hospital was told by Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) deputy general secretary Dave Hughes.
"If we have to do 50 protests, we will do 50. We will do whatever it takes. We have 40,000 nurses waiting for a response. It is time for the Government to respect us, time to pay us properly, and time to give us a 35-hour working week."
Mr Hughes dismissed a HSE "invention" about nurses making €56,000 per annum on average. To loud applause, he said: "If there's a nurse here who makes €56,000 per annum, we will take her photograph and put it in the paper.
"This 'average nurses' is a HSE invention. After 21 years, the best you can hope for is €45,500."
Hospital management reported no major disruption to services. Elective surgery planned for the hour was postponed following consultations between nurses and management, but otherwise the protest caused no difficulties.
Some members of the public joined the protest and others hooted their car horns in support as they passed by. Members of the INO and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association were involved in the dispute.