There are calls for a zero tolerance approach to attacks on health care staff.
It's after new figures provided to Sinn Fein's David Cullinane found there were over 7,300 verbal, physical or sexual assaults on staff.
Over 4,400 attacks were against nurses, according to the data provided by the HSE.
Health Editor with the Irish Times Paul Cullen says HSE bosses try to identify staff who could be at risk:
"It also attempts to assess the environment, there are quite detailed policies and some of them are online which are a bit frightening in a way in terms of, for example, securing environments to make them less dangerous for example, bolting seats down so they're not used as missiles, which gives you some indication of how things are at the sharp end."
