The General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says the cancellation of planned surgeries as part of a new plan to deal with overcrowding is an inevitable consequence of years of neglect in the health service.

Nurses will be balloted on the new plan over the next three weeks in a bid to reduce the number of people on trolleys in Emergency Departments (EDs).

Liam Doran says senior management has fooled itself into thinking hospitals can deal with the workload in EDs as well as routine procedures:

"In the past, the measures were weighted in favour of having to reduce your waiting list, regardless of what the overcrowding situation was in the Emergency Department. What the new measures clearly say is that the priority for hospital management is avoiding Emergency Department overcrowding. And that will mean that plans and routine procedures are cancelled - but that is the consequence of not having enough beds in our hospitals."

Mr Doran spoke to Newstalk Breakfast earlier: