Huge cuts in health budgets and numbers of health staff are an "unforgivable" repeat of the mistakes of the 1980s, according to the IMPACT trade union.
Currently, Government funding of the health service is lagging some way behind inflation in the sector, resulting in Dublin's five teaching hospitals - the Mater, Tallaght, St James's, St Vincent's and Beaumont - announcing at the start of the month they were closing 250 beds.
The hospitals said further cuts will be inevitable and, in addition to bed closures, there will be a reduction in overtime and the use of agency staff, vacant positions will not be filled and temporary staff contacts will not be renewed.
IMPACT said today that it would oppose cuts, which were having a devastating effect on people's lives and the morale of health workers.
Speaking at the union's health and welfare conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, IMPACT health executive member Mr Dick Fitzgerald said most of today's problems stemmed from the cuts and retrenchment of the 1980s.
"To make the mistake in the terrible economic circumstances of the 1980s was, perhaps, understandable. To repeat the mistake now, when Ireland remains one of the strongest economies in Europe, is short-sighted and unforgivable," he said.
Mr Fitzgerald added: "Savage cuts hit services hard at the time. But they also stored up problems for the future by closing facilities that would take years and millions of euro to replace, by stopping long-term capital investment, and by halting investment in the staff and professionals who would be needed in decades to come. We are now reaping the effects".
According to Mr Fitzgerald, millions of euro in capital investment is needed to bring health services into the 21st century. He welcomed the Government's investment of recent years saying it had been vital to redress the mistakes of the past.
IMPACT called on the Government borrow if necessary to fund long-term capital development in the health service.