The INMO says there is a shortage of nurses here, despite figures which show that Ireland has more nurses for our population size than other OECD countries.
The numbers were gathered from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland's data on professionally active nurses, along with details from the Central Statistics' Office Quarterly National Household Survey.
The Sunday Business Post reports that there are 34,509 whole-time equivalent nurses in the public system - an increase of 445 since December last year.
The information shows that Ireland has an average of 12 nurses per 1,000 people, compared with the OECD average of nine per 1,000.
The figures come with the caveat that the figures for Ireland and a number of other countries includes nurses working in management positions, adding 'around 10%' of the overall numbers.
The figures are in contrast with INMO claims that Ireland has a severe shortage of nurses.
General Secretary of the INMO, Liam Doran, says the OECD numbers do not reflect the actual situation where hospitals are struggling to fill nursing posts:
