The Director General of the Health Service Executive has said the root cause of the current overcrowding situation is the number of people whose phase of acute care has ended but for whom it has not been possible to place them elsewhere.
Tony O'Brien said since December the HSE has been putting a particular focus on ensuring as many as possible of these patients can receive the care appropriate to them.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said the issue was complex, but the executive was focused on clearing away much of the red tape it is normally subject to and has been working closely with Nursing Homes Ireland.
On the issue of patient safety, Mr O'Brien said he's very clear that "reducing the level of overcrowding will increase safety and that's why that's our number one priority right now."
When asked if hospitals are safe at the moment, Mr O'Brien said there are 28 different emergency departments with different stresses and refused to give a "general glib answer".
The number of patients awaiting admission to a hospital bed passed the 600 figure for the first time yesterday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives' Organisation.
RTÉ News went inside some of the worst-affected hospital emergency departments in the country.
Number of patients on trolleys exceeds 600
The number of patients waiting for beds today has eased slightly to 584 according to the latest INMO figures.
The worst affected hospitals are Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda where 42 patients are waiting, University Hospital Limerick with 40 patients and Connolly Hospital in Dublin which has 37 patients waiting.
INMO Director of Industrial Relations Phil Ní Sheaghda said overcrowding is a capacity issue and that all 2,000 closed beds in hospitals around the country need to be opened immediately.
She also claimed the INMO looked for elective admission to cease for the whole month of January on 23 December at the HSE forum.
Meanwhile, a survey by Nursing Homes Ireland found that as of yesterday there were over 1,200 private and voluntary nursing home beds unoccupied across the country.
277 of 442 nursing homes responded to the survey, reporting 1,261 beds as unoccupied.
Tadgh Daly, CEO of NHI, said the organisation "are presently engaged with the HSE and are committed to working with it to address the present significant challenges."
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar is expected to make a statement on the overcrowding in hospital emergency departments on his return to Ireland today.
Mr Varadkar is believed to have been in the United States.
The Department of Health said he has been kept up to date on the situation.
There are nearly 1,500 fewer acute hospital in-patient beds in the health service now when compared to 2004, according to the latest Health in Ireland Key Trends Report for 2014, published by the Department of Health.
It represents a 12% reduction in inpatient beds over the period.
The report shows there were 10,411 acute hospital in-patient beds open in 2013, compared with 11,887 in 2004.
It notes that population growth since 2005 has been over 11%, to 4.6m people.
In the key health demographic of people aged 65 years and older, the numbers have increased by 27% to over 586,000 older people.
Day-case beds in the health service have increased by nearly 890 over the same period.
There are now 2,021 day-case beds, compared with 1,132 beds in 2004.
This is an increase of over 78%.
It reflects a move towards more day procedures, given advances in medical technology and efforts to reduce overnight stays and overall length of hospital stays.
The SIPTU trade union has called for the Health and Information Quality Authority to inspect hospitals where patient and staff safety is threatened by overcrowding.
The call came as the Health Service Executive warned that the pressure on emergency departments is likely to continue in the coming weeks because of the seasonal surge.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of ALONE, a charity that works to support people in need, has appealed for organisations to come together to address the hospital trolley crisis immediately.
Sean Moynihan appealed to the Government to provide more housing with supports, nursing home beds and care in the community in order to free up the acute hospital beds.
Mr Moynihan said the sooner we start solving the problem, the sooner the job will be done.
"The reality of it is that a lot of short term measures have probably been taken in the past and they haven't worked. We have 20,000 extra over-65s for the next 30 years.
"The situation isn't going to go away so we may as well look at the short-term, the medium term and the long term solutions because other than that we won't resolve the issue."
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