The businessman who chaired the group that drew up the Hanly report on hospital reorganisation has refused to comment on speculation on whether it will be implemented.
Mr David Hanly, who will meet the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, today, said it wouldn't be appropriate for him to comment before the meeting.
It is expected Ms Harney will tell him she sees no future for a second group, set up over a year ago, which was due to use the Hanly blueprint to reorganise hospital services across the State.
The Hanly report, or Hanly I, devised a blueprint for two pilot regions only - the Mid West and East Coast Area Health Board regions - and controversially proposed that A&E units at smaller hospitals like Nenagh and Ennis be replaced with nurse-led minor injury units. A main hospital in each region would instead deal with major emergencies, it said, claiming this would be safer.
The report also said each region should have a full range of services in order to be as self sufficient as possible.
While Ms Harney has supported this view on regional self sufficiency she is understood to believe there is no point in the second group continuing its work in drawing up Hanly II, which Mr Hanly also chaired.
The group, which was due to report last summer, has in fact never been able to meet due to industrial action by hospital consultants who are boycotting its meetings over the introduction of a new medical malpractice insurance scheme.
Ms Harney told a Dáil committee last week the Hanly report was not "dead" but refused to answer "yes" or "no" when questioned on whether or not she supported the report's view on how A&Es should be reorganised.