Over 500 ambulance personnel are set to hold the first of a series of 24-hour strikes this Friday, it has been confirmed.

The personnel, which include paramedics and emergency medical technicians, are members of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA), which is a branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA).

The dispute centres on trade union representation. The HSE currently does not recognise the PNA or its NASRA branch as a representative body for ambulance workers.

The workers are demanding their right to be represented by the PNA as the union of their choice.

According to PNA general secretary, Peter Hughes, the HSE is ‘forcing an escalation in a dispute that is entirely of the HSE's making'. To date in this dispute, PNA ambulance branch members have engaged in a work to rule and have gone on strike on six different days.

During these days, the HSE arranged cover, which included the use of military ambulances.

However, this will be the first 24-hour strike and so it is expected to cause more disruption. It will begin at 7am on Friday, May 31 and end at 7am on Saturday, June 1.

"The demand by over 500 of our members to be members of, and represented by, the PNA now has strong cross-party political support in the Dáil. However, despite his comments in the Dáil that he wants this dispute referred to the Workplace Relations Commission, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, has been incapable of bringing the HSE to its senses and ending this divisive dispute," Mr Hughes commented.

He said that bringing this dispute to an end should be a priority for the new HSE director general, Paul Reid.

Mr Hughes added that it should also be a priority to ‘stop trying to force ambulance personnel into unions that they have made it clear they are not prepared to be members of'.

"Mr Reid has an opportunity to end this dispute which is impacting on performance and morale within the ambulance services - a vital area of frontline health services," he said.