Nurses and midwives from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) are set to take nationwide action from March 7th.

The INMO executive council has rejected staffing, recruitment and retention proposals put forward by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The council claims these are "totally inadequate."

The rejection of the proposals emerged from late night talks on Tuesday.

The INMO say it will now exercise the 90% mandate it received in a ballot of its members before Christmas.

It will serve notice of nationwide action commencing on Tuesday, March 7th.

The action will take the form of "an immediate and continuous work to rule" involving nurses and midwives working to contract.

This will mean a ban on overtime, no cross-cover or redeployment to fill-in for absent colleagues.

In addition, the organisation also say it will commence a series of rolling stoppages if the dispute is not resolved.

Martina Harkin-Kelly, INMO president, said: "In considering the proposals, executive council members presented numerous examples of nurses and midwives unable to provide full care to their patients, working beyond the end of their shift without pay, unable to take meal breaks and facing unmanageable workloads because of the appalling conditions, and inadequate staffing they now face every day".

On recruitment, the proposals were regarded as "too little too late" and still not competing with that being offered in the private sector and in other countries.

INMO General-Secretary, Liam Doran said: "The clear message received from INMO members is that their workplaces are now unsafe and dangerously overcrowded.

"All areas are understaffed and the services are at breaking point which will require radical solutions to take the pressure off struggling nurses and midwives.

"We need to attract and retain nurses and midwives in sufficient numbers to provide safe care and the current proposals contain no adequate remedies for this."