The Health Service Executive has warned that the National Ambulance Service will experience delays in responding to non life threatening calls due to industrial action by staff.
Around 2,000 members of SIPTU and Unite are carrying out a 24 hour strike and are engaging in a work-to-rule today in a dispute over pay.
The HSE said that the strike will have a significant impact on the National Ambulance Service's capacity to respond to calls.
The HSE added that a contingency plan has been put in place to prioritise patient safety and minimise disruption.
Members of the public are being urged to us alternative healthcare options such as injury units, GP surgeries, local pharmacies and mental health supports.
SIPTU Ambulance Sector Organiser John McCamley said: "We call on the HSE to implement the recommendations of the independent report without preconditions and to introduce enhanced pay scales which properly recognise the training and professional level that our members are now carrying out their duties on a daily basis."
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: "It is scandalous that these frontline workers have been waiting for six years for their skills and expertise to be recognised."
The HSE stated that they regret the decision of SIPTU and Unite to proceed with their strike. "A set of independently brokered proposals aimed at resolving the dispute and all other matters in dispute, including pay and service transformation, were agreed and recommended to their members by both SIPTU and Unite," a HSE spokesperson said.
"The implementation of the timing of the significant increases in pay was also the subject of a Labour Court recommendation," they added.
Unite trade union representative Eoin Drummey said that industrial action is about ambulance personnel seeking recognition for significant changes and additional responsibilities over the last 15 years. "Ambulance personnel have helped transform the service from primarily what it was - a patient transport model - into a modern pre-hospital emergency care service, delivering advanced clinical intervention to improve patient outcomes," Drummey said in an interview with Morning Ireland.
"So, what we're calling on HSE management to do is to remove preconditions requiring further modernisation changes and changes to terms and conditions before addressing the long-standing pay inequities," they continued.
