Nurses are to take industrial action from March 7th in a dispute over staff recruitment and retention which is likely to lead to hospital bed closures and cuts to hospital services .

From that day, members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will no longer work overtime, will not cross-cover for other absent staff and will not redeploy to other parts of their hospitals.

If the dispute remains unresolved, the planned action will escalate a week later to involve rolling work stoppages in hospitals and community services.

All acute hospitals were likely to be involved on the first day of the stoppages, the union said that.

The action will lead to the closure of beds and contraction of services to match available staffing levels, the INMO said.

This could add to waiting lists or increase the numbers on trolleys in emergency departments.

General secretary of the INMO Liam Doran said as part of the industrial action, nurses will provide the full range of services in their ward or area but will not move from one ward to another to cover absent colleagues who have not been replaced or staff vacancies that have not been filled.

“Our members are no longer going to work in unsafe environments in the interests of patients and themselves,” he said.

The INMO executive on Wednesday rejected as “completely inadequate” proposals put forward by health service management to deal with the recruitment and retention difficulties in the health service.

Minister for Health Simon Harris had promised to recruit 1,200 nurses this year as part of a new workforce plan. However Mr Doran said the recruitment proposals were “too little, too late”.

He described the Government’s proposals for the retention of existing staff as “flawed and shallow “.

Mr Doran rejected suggestions that the dispute was about money. However he confirmed that the INMO had sought the restoration of a broad range of allowances, which were abolished in 2011, for nurses recruited in recent years.

The INMO also sought that the health service should recognise all hours worked by nurses, including when they have to work through their meal breaks.

It also looked for the provision of one hour of work time per week to be devoted to professional and educational development for nurses.

Mr Harris and the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said they were deeply disappointed with the decision of the INMO.

They said the oversight group for the Lansdowne Road pay agreement would meet on Thursday and they would make no further comment before then.