Last month was the worst March on record for overcrowding - and there are over 1,500 Covid patients in hospital.
The INMO says just over 11-thousand patients have been without a bed this month.
That's the highest number since the nursing union started recording figures in 2006.
Cork University Hospital is among the most overcrowded hospitals around the country in March with 735 patients without a bed at CUH
Consultant in emergency medicine, Dr Mick Molloy, says it's a 'perilous situation'
"This is definitely the most challenging period because people are presenting to hospital for treatment of a different condition of maybe a fracture or another medical complaint which doesn't necessarily flag up as Covid and when you then find out somebody the non COVID pathway, turns out to be Covid positive when you're trying to admit them to a ward it means you're now having to segregate more patients on wards"
