The General Secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association says around 30 per cent of psychiatric nursing positions in Waterford are vacant.
A protest was held at University Hospital Waterford on Friday after overcrowding lead to patients sleeping on floors and chairs.
There's close to 50 vacancies in the mental health services in Waterford at present.
Peter Hughes says it's very difficult to recruit and retain staff.
"There are almost 50 nursing vacancies which equates to 30 per cent of staffing so obviously if someone is going to look at working in the Waterford service and they hear that service users are sleeping on the floor it's not a very attractive place to work at the moment," he said.
"It's very difficult to recruit and retain staff. There is literally no proper community service here. There should be home based teams or outreach teams but there is none of that which is in the Government Policy Vision For Change," stated Hughes. "What you would say for Waterford is that there is no vision here. They are depending on beds but if you don't have community resources in place then the demand for beds is going to be alot higher."
