The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has hit out at the management of Tallaght Hospital for leaving a 91-year-old man on a trolley for 29 hours.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has described the case as a damning indictment of what he says is emergency departments that are "chaotic and out of control".

Mr Kenny says the coalition has provided extra resources to resolve the trolley crisis - but some people are resisting change.

And the Taoiseach says hospital management need to explain how this was allowed to happen.

The Irish Patients Association says people are dying as a result of overcrowding in emergency departments.

The group says the health service has to make sure that people get safe, timely and appropriate care in hospital.

Stephen McMahon was responding to reports a couple in their 90s had to wait on trolleys in the emergency department in Tallaght for hours.

"There are deaths arising from overcrowding in our ED departments - and it's not so much the quantum, it's the fact that it happens" he said.

"And we must ensure that every patient gets their opportunity to safe care and appropriate care and timely care when they need it - and particularly our elderly (who) deserve a little better" he added.

 "They feel powerless and frustrated"

While a leading consultant in emergency medicine says he totally understands why nurses are threatening industrial action.

Dr Mark Doyle says doctors share the same frustrations as nurses when they see patients suffering because of overcrowding.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will be balloted on industrial action next Monday.

It says the vote will seek a mandate for industrial action, up to and including the withdrawal of labour "in protest at the persistent, and deepening, levels of overcrowding in ED Departments across the country".

The INMO say the latest trolley watch figures confirm overcrowding is at record levels, with 7,971 admitted patients cared for on trolleys in October.

It says that in the first ten months of this year, almost 80,000 admitted patients were on trolleys - which is the highest ever figure for the first 10 months of any year since trolley watch began.

Dr Doyle, President of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, says nurses face difficult conditions every day.

Patricia Burns' mother Noreen Burns died in Naas General Hospital in July 2014.

Noreen - known as Rena - had felt unwell for some weeks and ultimately she was taken to Tallaght Hospital in Dublin to undergo tests.

But when in hospital, she collapsed and it was then, when Rena needed acute hospital care, the trouble really began.

Patricia described her mother's final few days to Newstalk Breakfast reporter Kieran Cuddihy.

Also today, midwives at University Hospital Limerick voted to withdraw from administrative duties for one day on Friday 27th November.