The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) has called on the Minister of Health to resolve the strike by public health doctors "as a matter of urgency".
Speaking to
ireland.com
this afternoon, the secretary-general of the IHCA, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said although the IHCA has a strict no-strike policy, they believed that in light of Mr Michael Martin's comments last Friday, the onus was on him to make the first move in resolving the dispute.
Mr Fitzpartick was referring to comments by the Minister at the annual general meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation in Killarney in which he accused the striking doctors of putting peoples lives at risk and of "total abandonment of responsibility".
"His remarks have been very badly received and has led to a hardening of positions in relation to the Department of Health and the Minister," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
"In these circumstances we believe it is incumbent on the Minster to make the first move in resolving this issue. It will have to be dealt with sooner or later, and we believe that it would be better it were resolved this week rather than next week, or even later".
The strike by Public Health Doctors was discussed at a National Council meeting of the IHCA last Saturday at which Council concluded that any strike that interferes in the safety of patients or public should be ended.
The IHCA said it expected striking doctors to respond positively to any move by the Minister, but, according to Mr Fitzpatrick, no such moves had been made.
The National Council also agreed that should the public health doctors suspend their strike, the IHCA would lend whatever support it could to ensure that their longstanding claims are resolved to their reasonable satisfaction.
Mr Fitzpatrick added, however, that he did not believe that the situation would escalate as an escalation of the dispute would require a ballot that could take up to three weeks to be completed.
The position of the IHCA, he said, would be to oppose such a move as it could put patients at risk.